SAN GABRIEL >> Police arrested a man and woman and seized nearly 700 marijuana plants Wednesday when they dismantled an illicit indoor marijuana farm operating out of the back of a San Gabriel tailor business, officials said.
Reports of suspicious activity at New Craft Design Inc., 864 Commercial Ave., first attracted the attention of police, who paid a visit to the longtime business about 2 p.m., San Gabriel police Detective Lt. Brian Kott said.
Officers entered the open business and immediately smelled a strong odor of marijuana, he said.
Officers detained a man and woman who were inside the building and detectives obtained a search warrant for the business, Kott said.
The front portion of the business was operating as a tailor business, and had been doing so for several years, Kott said. But the building had been subdivided.
“The other part of the facility was an elaborate marijuana-growing operation,” the lieutenant said.
Police uprooted between nearly marijuana plants, in various levels of maturity, from two subdivided rooms within the building, he said. The business had also been outfitted with a hydroponic gardening system.
Peggy Mui Do, 62, and Phuong Day Ung, 36, were booked on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana, Kott said.
Do was in the front portion of the business when officers arrived, Kott said. Ung was detained after emerging from the subdivided pot farm.
Another woman not believed tied directly to the marijuana-growing operation was arrested after she showed up at the businesses during the investigation and was found in possession of a methamphetamine pipe, Kott added.

PHOTOS courtesy of the San Gabriel Police Department