A note to stupid criminals--it's usually smart to keep your mouth shut.

Rule #1 when you're running a clandestine dope-growing operation: Don't give interviews to the media bragging about it.

Dope grower Chris Bartkowicz, of Highland Ranch Colorado, apparently never heard this. He actually gave an interview to the local news outlets bragging about how he turned his house into a dope factory with the hope of cashing in on the "medical marijuana" craze.

"I'm definitely hidden in suburbia," he said.

A jungle of electrical wires and water hoses snakes from room to room in the home's basement, all supporting Bartkowicz's nearly $500,000 medical-marijuana operation.

This year, he is hoping for a record profit.

"I'd like to see somewhere in the vicinity of $400,000 " he said, though he admits he could make as little as $100,000 depending on what happens with proposed laws regarding medical marijuana.

Bartkowicz said he has grown for more than a year without his neighbors finding out and without any criminal complications.

"If my neighbors don't know and no one else knows, how would I be a target?" he said. "I want to be invisible."

Bartkowicz must route air from the home through a carbon filter to remove the marijuana odor before pumping it outside. Lights and pumps get expensive too. He showed 9Wants to Know his electric bill for two months. He owed $3,694.92, a small price to pay for what he earns, he said.

"I'm definitely living the dream now," he said.

A drug dealer bragging openly about his defiance of the law. Only in a Blue State...

However Bartkowicz' boasting didn't go unnoticed for long. Today's 9News had a related story, but from a different angle.

HIGHLANDS RANCH - Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a Highlands Ranch home on Friday and arrested a medical marijuana grower who was part of a 9Wants to Know story about suburban medical marijuana growing operations.

After 9NEWS showed a tease for a story about Bartkowicz and his operation Thursday night, DEA agents decided he needed a visit. By Friday afternoon DEA agents were at the house carrying away moving boxes and leaf-size trash bags from his home, all filled with marijuana plants.

They also carried away lights, filters and other equipment that were part of Bartkowicz's growing operation.

In the earlier interview, Bartkowicz claimed his operation was completely legal under a state law that allows the growing and sale of medical marijuana.

The special agent in charge of the DEA in Denver says federal law still makes growing and selling marijuana illegal.

"According to him and according to what he's seen on the news he probably believes he is legal," Jeff Sweetin said late Friday afternoon. "We will continue to enforce federal law that's what we are paid to do until the federal law changes."

Bartkowicz is in custody and will not learn what charges he might face until Tuesday, after the President's Day holiday. The U.S. Attorney's office told 9NEWS Friday if he is charged, he could face a charge of possession with intent to distribute. The U.S. Attorney will review the evidence and the decide on the charges.

Hey, moron...you still living the dream?

They call it "dope" for a reason. And I note for the record that this guy himself claimed to be a "medical marijuana" patient. But then all the dopers and drug addicts in Colorado are making that claim these days, almost all for aches and pains that no doctor can actually see or disprove. The voters passed a law allowing the drug for actual sufferers of chronic pain and the addicts jumped right on it and began gaming it by claiming to all have some sort of pain that can't be treated any other way. Hopefully the Colorado voters are waking up to the fact that they were gulled by a pro-legalization lobby that trotted a few cancer-stricken elderly people out in front of them, claiming that they were the people that needed medical marijuana. Now it's every twenty year old skateboarder and x-box player who is going around with a medical marijuana card, each pretending to be disabled in some way.

It's time to change the law back, Colorado. And people in other states that are considering legalizing marijuana for so-called medical use, please take note of the massive fraud going on in Colorado today and just say no.