Welcome To The Pot Cave

On December 5th 2006, the house and a neighboring home about a half mile away, caught fire and burned to the ground. The suspicious fires were intentionally set and sparked a wave of speculation about who, and more importantly, why someone would burn the houses. A popular theory is that the police possibly missed a key piece of evidence during the investigation. Maybe documents or information leading to more underground grows or other co-conspirators in the operation. With the attention to detail that went into hiding the huge grow operation, it seems logical that the police could have missed something small and well hidden within the home. We will probably never know the true reason, but the fact that a second house was also destroyed, fuels suspicion about how large this operation really was (or possibly still is).

On December 14th 2005, the house was raided by national and local law enforcement agencies and three men were arrested in connection with the growing operation. Brian Gibson and Greg Compton were arrested in Tennessee and are believed to be the day-to-day managers of the operation. Fred Earl Strunk, thought to be the mastermind behind the operation, was arrested at his home in an affluent area of Gainesville Florida.

Investigators estimated that the operation could bring in as much as 6 to 8 million dollars per year and could produce about 100 pounds of processed marijuana per harvest.

All that and he could'nt spend a few grand on a generator.