Drug agents are finding red ribbons and other occult religious symbols at the increasing number of pot-growing houses busted over the past several days. The count is up to 23 marijuana “grow houses” and the numbers just keep on coming.

Multi-county busts of 11 marijuana ”grow houses” announced last week by Fayette County Sheriff’s Drug Suppression Task Force continued over the weekend with 12 others in six new counties added to the list.

And like the others, the most recent seizures are connected to Fayette County resident Merquides Martinez. The 35-year-old Greenway Court resident is being held in the Coweta County jail on charges of conspiracy to traffic in marijuana and theft of electric power services.

An unusual find in the raids was the frequent presence of red bows and ribbons placed on doors and other areas near the entry to the basements where the marijuana was being cultivated.

A facet of the Cuban Santeria voodoo religion, task force Capt. Mike Pruitt said the symbol is used for protection of both the grower and the crop. Also known as Lukumi, Santeria is a blend of the West African Yoruba beliefs and Christianity. Agents also found garlic cloves placed behind televisions and in other locations in some houses.

Seizures last week totaled 2,100 plants valued at $12 million. Seizures in recent days brings the total to more than 3,700 plants, according to Pruitt.

The $12 million price tag on the original 2,100 plants is derived from the $6,000 per pound price tag on hydroponic (or water-grown) marijuana that dealers charge in New York, the primary destination for the Georgia-grown product.

And to date, a total of 31 arrests have been made with two other warrants outstanding, said Pruitt. Nearly all those arrests were of individuals paid to care for the plants, he said.

As with the previous seizures, the recent raids showed that electricity being used in the hydroponics operations was obtained by using energy diverted from Georgia Power and local EMCs.

The theft of power is a tell-tale sign because the amount of energy required to power the lighting and other equipment in a grow house is exorbitant, Pruitt said.

Company officials estimate that growers tapping on to power lines are using as much as 3,800 kilowatt hours every five days, more than 20 times the norm for a residence of that size, he said.

Pruitt said electric membership companies and Georgia Power are currently working with drug agents, alerting law enforcement to houses in locations where transformers have been blown out for previously unknown reasons, said Pruitt.

Search warrants were executed at a total 27 locations so far, Pruitt said. Previous warrants were issued in Fayette, Coweta, Butts, Henry, Rockdale and Newton counties. Search warrants executed since last week included Barrow, Jackson, Hall, Walton, Jasper and Jackson counties, he said. All the locations searched have links to Martinez, Pruitt added.

Preliminary information provided to the Fayette task force by Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Miami evolved into the discovery of Martinez and his wife, real estate agent Blanca Botello.

The investigation also led to the Martinez-owned Panoramic Garden Hydroponics store on Ga. Highway 85 in Fayetteville. Later came the discovery of marijuana grow houses all over southwest metro Atlanta and the arrests of Martinez, Botello and 24 others, all Cuban nationals, involved in the grow operations, said Pruitt.

Word of the extent of Martinez’ far-flung operation has spread in the law enforcement community across metro Atlanta. The seizures in 12 counties spearheaded by the Fayette task force is now leading to additional operations as other agencies follow those leads.

“Law enforcement in other counties are branching out and finding grow houses,” Pruitt said.

Seizures since last week include more than 500 plants in three grow houses along with two arrests in Barrow County, Pruitt said. Agents seized 1,000 plants in three grow houses in Jackson County, confiscated equipment in a storage building and made two arrests. One grow house was raided in Walton County where 115 plants were under cultivation. And in Jasper County a search warrant led to the discovery of an abandoned grow house, said Pruitt.

Significant, said Pruitt, is that agents are finding paperwork in some locations that leads them to additional grow houses around the metro area.

Though currently at a massive scale compared to drug operations routinely witnessed by many in law enforcement, the current investigations may well lead to even more further arrests and seizures, Pruitt said.

“There are 159 counties in Georgia,” Pruitt said. “We’ve done 12 so far and we’ll keep going until we can’t go any further.”