A Lakewood police investigation of an illegal marijuana-grow operation led to SWAT teams and law enforcement raiding four houses early Wednesday morning in Pierce and King counties, arresting five people, seizing hundreds of plants and at least $38,000 in cash.
Hui Chen, 56, and Eileen Hy, 65, a married couple are accused of leading organized crime and several drug offenses for unlawfully growing marijuana plants in Lakewood and Federal Way.
Yun Guang Huang, 40; Limei Huang, 46 and Mingguang Huang, 38, were also charged Thursday in Pierce County Superior Court, each accused of unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance and unlawful use of a building for drug purposes.
Pleas of not guilty were entered on behalf of each defendant at arraignment hearings Friday morning, and each was ordered to be released. According to court records, none had prior criminal convictions. Defense attorneys were not listed in court records.
Lakewood Sgt. Charles Porche told The News Tribune on Friday that the searches were the culmination of five months of investigation. He said the investigation is ongoing.
“It was very successful,” Porche said of Wednesday’s operation.
Civil forfeiture lawsuits also were filed Wednesday by Lakewood police for houses in Lakewood and Federal Way, alleging they were acquired with money tied to unlawful activity in violation of money-laundering laws.
Lakewood police started investigating in April 2021 after receiving an anonymous tip about a suspected marijuana grow at a house in the 8000 block of Maybelle Lane, according to charging documents. A copy of a search warrant shows that neighbors reported that when the residents moved in they immediately blacked out the windows and installed extensive security cameras.
Neighbors told police they could constantly hear low- and high-pitch whining noises, smelled cannabis and saw white work vans show up on weekends for short periods of time. Police surveillance of the single-story home, which was sold to Chen and Hy in 2020, confirmed the neighbors’ reports.
A multi-agency operation served search warrants at four addresses suspected to be connected to an illegal marijuana grow, including this address in Lakewood, on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025.
Staffing issues in Lakewood’s Special Operations Unit stalled the investigation for years, according to the search warrant, but it was picked up again in the spring. In June, an investigator learned Chen and Hy owned another home in Federal Way, where another illegal marijuana grow was reportedly discovered in 2018 after a fire broke out.
Police surveilled the Federal Way house over the summer and noticed its windows were always covered up, which investigators said is common in illegal grows so the plants’ light exposure can be controlled. Neighbors told investigators they usually smelled marijuana late at night.
Investigators applied for a search warrant in July for a year’s worth of Puget Sound Energy bills for the Federal Way residence. According to charging documents, investigators were granted a search warrant for the house itself Sept. 16, along with warrants for the Lakewood house, Chen and Hy’s home overlooking Lake Washington in Rainier Beach and a residence in unincorporated Pierce County.
Power bills for the Lakewood house also were obtained by investigators, which allegedly showed they were using nearly 24 times the amount of power of comparable residences at 17,000 kilowatt hours per month. Between the Lakewood and Federal Way homes, Chen and Hy were reportedly paying about $5,000 a month for electricity.
On Wednesday, search teams simultaneously carried out the warrants at about 5 a.m. According to charging documents, the Valley SWAT Team, Pierce County SWAT and Lakewood’s Special Response Team participated, along with other agencies, including police departments in Tacoma, Seattle and Steilacoom, the King County Sheriff’s Office, the State Patrol, the state Department of Ecology, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board.
Investigators knew that Hy typically leaves her Rainier Beach home early in the morning, and she was stopped and taken into custody shortly after 4:30 a.m. According to police, Chen was arrested in Lakewood. Yun Guang Huang and Mingguang Huang were taken into custody at the Federal Way home.
In Lakewood, Limei Huang opened the front door when the search began and ran inside, where she hid under some blankets in a bedroom, according to the probable cause document. She allegedly said she’d lived there off and on for two years and helped water the plants.
All of the plants were found in the Lakewood and Federal Way homes. Records state police cut and bagged 580 marijuana plants for destruction in Lakewood across five rooms. In Federal Way, police allegedly discovered clear indicators of a recently harvested grow, with multiple rooms containing equipment such as irrigation tables, filters and chemicals along with 188 plants and thousands in cash.
Little was found at the home in unincorporated Pierce County. According to the probable cause document, three people who have not been charged in this case were located and detained, but the residence was “quite empty” and was being renovated.
At Chen and Hy’s house in Rainier Beach, the only person inside was Hy’s son. Police found $19,000 in cash in a nightstand drawer, a sock of gold jewelry, and a Smith & Wesson pistol in the master bedroom.