Homebuilder / Alleged Indoor Pot Farm Financier Charged With Mortgage Fraud, Money Laundering

In Port St. Lucie, Florida, the Palm Beach Post reports:

• The patriarch of the family whose Port St. Lucie home building company allegedly financed, setup and maintained a sprawling network of marijuana grow houses was arrested Tuesday, records show. Jose Raul Cepero, 69, a Cuban native who founded Global Home Builders Inc., after two stints in prison during the 1980s and 1990s on drug charges, was arrested Tuesday on warrants for money laundering and mortgage fraud. He is being held at the St. Lucie County Jail in lieu of $1.1 million bail.

• Investigators say Global Home Builders Inc. laundered drug profits and helped its pot growers obtain fraudulent mortgages to buy houses, which company employees would outfit with elaborate indoor gardens, shuttling supplies between Home Depot and the grow houses in trucks bearing the company logo.

For more, see Homebuilder charged with money laundering and mortgage fraud.

Go here for earlier posts on Global Home Builders.

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Builder Busted In Treasure Coast Indoor Pot Farm Raids; Mortgage Fraud Charges Possible

In Port St. Lucie, Florida, the Palm Beach Post reports:

• A small Port St. Lucie home builder appears to be at the center of an investigation into a ring of marijuana grow houses that sprawled across St. Lucie County, where authorities on Tuesday raided 18 homes and seized 420 pounds of pot, officials said. Authorities said they arrested 10 people, including the owner of Global Home Builders of the Treasure Coast, and uncovered 10 indoor marijuana farms during pre-dawn raids. They also said they confiscated $57,000 cash, 38 grams of cocaine, four guns, nine cars and a boat. The investigation began in September, and resulted Tuesday in what Port St. Lucie Police Chief John Skinner called the area's biggest single-day bust of indoor marijuana farms.

For more, see Builder arrested in raids at pot farms. See also, 10 more houses raided for pot in PSL (TC Palm).

A WPEC-TV Channel 12 story reported that mortgage fraud charges may also be coming in connection with the homes that were raided. To watch the video coverage, see Grow House Bust (WPEC-TV Channel 12) and Video: Police arrest 10 people in raids of alleged marijuana grow houses (St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office).

For story update, see Mortgage Fraud Charges Tacked On To Three Suspects Facing Charges Of Running 10 Indoor Florida Pot Farms. pot grow ops alpha

Mortgage Fraud Charges Tacked On To Three Suspects Facing Charges Of Running 10 Indoor Florida Pot Farms

In Port St. Lucie, Florida, TC Palm reports:

• Three people already sitting in jail on multiple drug charges were charged with mortgage fraud Tuesday. Law enforcement officials allege Juan Carlos Calderon-Mencriff, 41, Carmen E. Fernandez, 48, and Jorge Luis Fernandez, 58, all of Port St. Lucie, were part of an extensive father-and-son pot-growing operation that allegedly used a local home-building company as a front and a network of workers to cultivate hundreds of pounds of marijuana. Roberto Alberto Cepero and his son, Roberto Patricio Cepero — the father and son officials suspect ran the operation — were arrested in November, along with 20 others as part of an investigation that focused on those associated with Global Homes Builders Inc. and that shut down 10 marijuana grow houses in St. Lucie County.

For more, see 3 PSL residents in jail on drug charges now face mortgage fraud charges.

Go here and go here for other posts on Marijuana Grow Houses. pot grow ops alpha