Operator of Underground ‘Pot’ Farms Gets 12 Years

A Lancaster plumbing contractor who authorities say masterminded a trio of high-tech underground marijuana farms in the Antelope Valley and Arizona was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison and fined $25,000 on Monday in Arizona, a prosecutor said.

Frank E. Gegax, 48, the owner of KMG Construction, was sentenced in Phoenix by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Rosenblatt, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Ann Birmingham.

The case stemmed from raids in October and November, 1990, on the three underground farms--one in Lancaster and two near Bullhead City, Ariz.--in which authorities seized more than 20,000 marijuana plants with a potential harvest value of more than $75 million.

Rosenblatt also sentenced Michael Gegax, Frank Gegax’s brother and the owner of one of the Arizona farms, to 32 months. Calvin G. James, a worker at the Lancaster farm, was sentenced to 22 months. Robert Benson, a worker at one of the Arizona farms, drew an eight-month sentence, Birmingham said.