Pubdate: Tue, 22 Dec 2009
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2009 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact: http://www.suntimes.com/aboutus/feedback/index.html
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: DAVE GATHMAN

POT WORTH $1.5 MILLION SEIZED IN BARN NEAR HUNTLEY

HUNTLEY -- McHenry County sheriff's police announced Monday that they 
seized three-quarters of a ton of marijuana, with a street value 
estimated at $1.5 million, and arrested five men in a raid near 
Huntley and Hampshire Sunday evening.

Sheriff Keith Nygren said the arrests resulted from a joint 
investigation by the sheriff's department's narcotics division and 
the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Nygren said 
investigators became aware on Sunday that a semi-trailer truck of a 
certain description contained a large shipment of marijuana and was 
driving along I-90.

"It was coming from out of state, but I don't want to say where 
from," the sheriff said. "We thought it would be going into Chicago. 
But the truck turned off the tollway at Route 20 (in Hampshire) and 
drove to an address at 14206 Harmony Road in unincorporated Huntley."

He said that address is a farm owned by a 90-year-old woman who lives 
in a nursing home. He said detectives believe the woman had rented a 
pole barn on the property to a member of the smuggling gang.

He said the truck drove into the pole barn and as investigators 
watched, five men began unloading what looked like pallets loaded 
with bags of onions, using a forklift. DEA agents and sheriff's 
deputies then descended on the property and arrested the five men 
involved. Nygren said they found 58 bales of processed marijuana, 
weighing 1,464 pounds, each hidden inside a bag of onions. Officers 
also seized $8,000 in cash.

The five each were charged with possession of cannabis with intent to 
deliver, a Class X felony, and possession of cannabis, a Class 1 
felony. Arrested were [names of 5 persons omitted to protect privacy].

They were being held Monday evening in the McHenry County Jail, 
awaiting a bond hearing today.
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