Police have seized more than 550 marijuana plants from an unlicensed growth operation in Baroda Township.
The Baroda-Lake Township Police Department and officers with the Southwest Enforcement Team searched a warehouse in the 8,000 block of Stevensville-Baroda Road on March 27 as part of the investigation. Michigan State Police Lieutenant Evan Hauger tells us it all started when Baroda-Lake police spotted someone hanging around outside of the building and suspected a break-in.
“They saw a person exit what they believed to be an abandoned commercial facility, and they stopped and detained that individual,” Hauger said. “There were some suspicious signs, and they went into the property to determine if there was other people involved in a possible break-in.”
Officers found one other person inside and began to suspect marijuana was being grown there. Nearby residents had complained about a smell. Hauger says the subsequent search with SWET turned up the 550-plus plants and more than 34 pounds of processed marijuana.
Police suspect all of that weed was being grown for the black market.
“There is a legal marijuana industry in Michigan that the voters approved just for recreational use of marijuana. However, it appears that market is very saturated and flooded because of so many different legal license dispensaries and facilities. And because of that, it’s really driven down the cost of marijuana. And what that does is it opens the door to the black market.”
Hauger says he doesn’t know where the marijuana being grown at that location was headed, but with Berrien County being across the border from Indiana, where marijuana remains illegal, that’s a possibility.
Police are now investigating the operation to determine who else is involved. The two persons of interested were detained and released pending possible charges. They are a 22-year-old man from Indiana and a 43-year-old man from Colorado.
