3 Held in Probe of Drug Network : Narcotics: The 2 men and a woman are to be charged with conspiracy to sell marijuana. Deputies say one man was a major dealer in the Valley.

Sheriff’s narcotics investigators pursuing the trail of marijuana grown in sophisticated underground farms in the Antelope Valley and Arizona have arrested a San Fernando Valley drug distributor linked to the network, authorities said Monday.

Michael Kumar, 31, allegedly sold more than $1 million worth of marijuana a year supplied by the operators of the Antelope Valley and Arizona farms, 14 of whom were indicted by a federal grand jury in Phoenix last week, Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen L. Cooley said.

Kumar, who will be charged today by county prosecutors with conspiracy to sell marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale, was arrested Friday night at a Castaic motel after attempting to buy 30 pounds of marijuana in a fake drug deal set up by investigators, authorities said.

Sheriff’s investigators have “taken a major dealer off the street,” Cooley said. “He appeared to be operating in the seven figures on an annual basis.”

Deputies also arrested Gabriel Alfred, 29, of South Los Angeles and Elizabeth Haskell, 26, who was described as Kumar’s girlfriend. Alfred and Haskell will be charged with conspiracy to sell marijuana, Cooley said.

All three were being held at the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station on $1 million bail each, with arraignments expected today. No lawyers could be reached for comment.

The arrests bring to 19 the number of people named in a continuing investigation into the high-tech farms and their alleged operators, a group of construction contractors investigators say produced millions of dollars worth of marijuana sold in California and other states. Sheriff’s deputies identified Kumar last week as a high-volume distributor, placed him under surveillance and set up the phony sale, said Capt. Larry Waldie, commander of the sheriff’s narcotics bureau.

“We arranged the sale of 30 pounds through an informant,” Waldie said.

Although Kumar was apprehensive because of the well-publicized series of raids and arrests over the past month, he agreed to buy the marijuana for $105,000 at the Castaic motel, authorities said. He was arrested about 6 p.m. by deputies, who then arrested Alfred and Haskell at a nearby restaurant and found the money in a bag in Alfred’s car, Waldie said. Alfred was going to deliver the money to Kumar to make the payment when the deal was concluded, Waldie said.

Kumar appears to have sold marijuana to lower-level dealers in the San Fernando Valley, and investigators are trying to determine whether he also operated elsewhere, Cooley said.

Authorities gave few details on how Kumar was supplied by the desert farms allegedly financed and overseen by Lancaster contractor Frank Gegax, who pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges of possession of and conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Kumar may have dealt with the Gegax network through an intermediary, Cooley said.

“He and Gegax may not have known each other,” Cooley said.

Deputies confiscated two vintage 1950s Cadillacs at Kumar’s Woodland Hills house and found about $50,000 worth of marijuana in one of the cars, authorities said. Prosecutors plan to initiate proceedings to confiscate the cars and the house, worth $200,000 to $400,000, Cooley said.

In addition to the federal indictments against 14 men and the expected local charges against Kumar and his two alleged accomplices, two contractors have been charged in San Bernardino County in connection with a suspected indoor farm under construction near Barstow.

Federal and local authorities are continuing the investigation, which so far has turned up four high-tech farms, two more alleged farms under construction and $77 million worth of marijuana plants.