Two nabbed in multimillion, multi-county marijuana growing operation

Using rented houses and color-coded aliases lifted straight from the film "Reservoir Dogs," a pair of suburban men raised thousands of cannabis plants indoors as part of a multimillion-dollar marijuana-growing ring authorities broke up last week, police said Friday.

The men, Phillip J. Koeckritz, 35, of Palatine and Raymond T. Holland, 52, of Bloomingdale Township, face felony charges of unlawful production of cannabis plants and conspiracy stemming from a nine-month investigation into the operation.

"Taking these guys down, it is pretty big," said Sgt. John Koziol, head of the McHenry County sheriff's narcotics unit. "These guys had their stuff together. They knew what they were doing. It was high-quality (marijuana) and it looked like they had been doing it for years."

Sheriff's police, along with agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Palatine and McHenry police departments, and Lake County sheriff's police, arrested the pair Oct. 29 at a home on the 200 block of North Bothwell Street in Palatine.

At that residence, sheriff's police said, investigators found growing lights, ballasts, tarps and other equipment that could be used to grow marijuana plants indoors. It was the fourth location linked to the men where investigators say they discovered signs of pot-growing operations.

The first came Jan. 18 when, police said, investigators serving a search warrant at a McHenry house discovered about 1,500 marijuana plants valued at $1.5 million along with packaging materials, indoor plant growing lights and processed marijuana. About $75,000 in damage had been done to the home as a result of the growing operation, sheriff's police said.

The find sparked an investigation that eventually led police to search a Woodstock home Oct. 20 where, authorities said, they found evidence of a dismantled indoor growing operation that would have produced 3,500 to 5,000 marijuana plants. Authorities estimated that about $100,000 in damage was done to the home as part of the growing effort.

"They put holes in the walls and floors. They put a hole in an exterior wall to run in ventilation," Koziol said. "These houses were absolutely destroyed."

That same night, investigators searched a Johnsburg home linked to the case and recovered 63 grams of cannabis, scales and drug paraphernalia, as well as growing equipment similar to that found in the McHenry and Woodstock residences.

Koziol said the investigation also revealed that suspects spoke to one another through code names like "Mr. Pink" and "Mr. White" lifted from Quentin Tarantino's 1992 film "Reservoir Dogs."

Koeckritz, of the 700 block of Independence Drive, and Holland, the 23W600 block of Woodworth, were in custody Friday at the McHenry County jail on $100,000 bonds. Both are scheduled to appear in court next week on the charges, which typically are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Sheriff's police said the investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected.