Two more charged in marijuana case
Two more men were charged in connection with a marijuana bust that netted 7,592 plants worth $10 million in three rented homes in Bolingbrook and Naperville, police announced Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Chang Chen was ordered held on $1 million bail. The 40-year-old citizen of China is charged with unlawful production of cannabis plants, a felony punishable by four to 15 years in prison. He also would be eligible for probation.
Prosecutor Ken Tatarelis said Chen cultivated the plants out of the three homes, with the one on the 2500 block of Whitehall Lane in Naperville serving as the main location.
Mingdi Lu, 30, of the 3300 block of South Bell Road in Bolingbrook, was charged with felony production/possession of Cannabis, a class 3 felony, police said.
Jinzu Shi, 51, of the 2700 block of South Wallace in Chicago, was charged with felony production of cannabis, a class 2 felony, police said.
Prosecutor Ken Tatarelis said Chen cultivated the plants out of the three homes, with the one on the 2500 block of Whitehall Lane in Naperville serving as the main location.
"Naperville police received a tip from a neighbor who saw U-Hauls going in and out of the garage, and they thought the place was being robbed," said Tatarelis, the office's narcotics chief.
Chen also is accused of illegally using electrical grids to power the operation. He had rented the Naperville home for about two years, but Tatarelis said the defendant lived in an apartment on the 2200 block of South Wentworth Avenue in Chicago. He has a New York driver's license.
Chen is on probation for soliciting a prostitute. DuPage Associate Judge Liam Brennan told Chen he must relinquish his passport and prove a legal source of bail money before he is released. He remains held in the DuPage County jail.
With the assistance of the Bolingbrook police and the DEA, search warrants were obtained for the addresses in Bolingbrook where similar cultivation operations were discovered, yielding approximately 6,000 cannabis plants in addition to the other plants discovered. During the execution of the search warrants in the Bolingbrook area on Monday, all three suspects were taken into custody.