Police arrest 2 in Minn. marijuana-growing operation

DULUTH, Minn., — Authorities arrested a man and a woman Thursday evening at a residence on the Fond du Lac reservation after allegedly finding a large marijuana growing operation on the property. Police also confiscated 29 firearms in the raid, including 17 long rifles and 12 pistols.

Cloquet Police Chief Wade Lamirande said it was a sophisticated growing operation. Officers found two cultivating rooms in an outbuilding on the property, as well as a large amount of processed marijuana in the residence and adjacent building. The street value of the seized marijuana was estimated at more than $100,000, Lamirande said.

“I’m always impressed with the amount of time, energy and money that people will go through to harvest,” Lamirande said in a phone interview Friday morning. “But the rewards are significant. This individual doesn’t work, yet had a number of collectible vehicles, boats, snowmobiles and four wheelers.”

Lamirande said the arrests came after a yearlong investigation, lead by Cloquet police detectives.

“It was a process of receiving tips and information from various informants, then following up to establish probable cause (for a search warrant),” Lamirande said, noting that the suspects — who lived at the residence — had a pair of new generators, one way of masking the high power consumption typical of such growing operations, which use powerful lights and other equipment to grow the plants indoors.

Officers from the Cloquet Police department, St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, Minnesota State Patrol and the Fond du Lac Police department worked together on the bust.

“It’s a lot of work,” Lamirande said. “It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to dismantle an operation of this size — to log and process the evidence and transport and secure everyone.”

The names of the suspects won’t be released until they are arraigned and formally charged; they were arrested for felony possession of controlled substances and are in custody.

Jana Peterson is a reporter

at the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.

Tags: news, minnesota, crime, marijuana, felony