Chicago police arrested seven men and found an estimated $33 million in cannabis, weighing more than 12,000 pounds, from a West Side warehouse during a bust conducted Monday afternoon.
According to a news release, narcotics unit officers were led to the warehouse, located on the 1000 block of South Kolmar Avenue, after they received a tip about a drug trafficking organization that was linked to multiple street gangs, in addition to storing and distributing massive amounts of narcotics. Monday, police observed a cargo van leaving the grounds which, upon further investigation, contained nearly 2,500 pounds of marijuana.
The warehouse contained 9,800 more pounds of cannabis, as well as seven vehicles, a rifle and a handgun that were "connected with the illicit activity," according to police.
The operation was the largest pot bust conducted entirely by Chicago police, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Seven men were charged with possession of more than 5,000 grams of cannabis in connection with the investigation, one of whom, 37-year-old Manuel Sanchez, also faces a trafficking charge. The men are currently being held on bonds ranging from $300,000 to, in the case of Sanchez, $600,000.
Photo by aeroSoul via Flickr.
