POT BUSTS NET 2,800 POUNDS

Valued at $7.5 Million, Seizures Are Largest in Recent Years, Cops Say

Chicago police have seized about 2,800 pounds of marijuana in a
four-day series of drug busts, representing the largest cannabis
confiscation in recent years, officers said Sunday evening.

Standing in front of dozens of bales, the deputy chief of the
narcotics and gangs section reiterated what Chicago police often cite
as problems in the city: gangs, guns and drugs.

"Street gangs use these narcotics to fund their enterprises and buy
guns and put the community and everyone at risk in terms of the
violence associated with it," Steve Caluris said at an evidence
storage warehouse on the West Side.

He estimated the value of the marijuana in the four seizures at $7.5
million. Three occurred on the Southwest Side, and the last was on the
Northwest Side. Six people have been arrested, Caluris said.

Police declined to identify the people in custody.

Tips from the community and informants led officers to the drug
stashes, Caluris said.

In the first bust on Thursday, police found 465 pounds of marijuana
and $53,000 in cash at an address in the 3400 block of West 72nd
Street, he said.

The next day, Officers Raphael Mitchem and Mark Eldridge were staking
out a home in the 4400 block of South Homan Avenue after being tipped
off that drugs were stored inside.

"We saw two males leave carrying a television box. We approached and
asked what they were carrying, and they said, 'Nothing,'" Mitchem
said. "We could smell the drug. They had 31 pounds in that box."

Inside the home, they found about an additional 1,070 pounds of
marijuana, stacked in cellophane bundles in the basement, he said.
Officers also found $1,000 in the house, which Mitchem described as
vacant except for a TV and the drugs.

On Saturday, police confiscated about 42 pounds of marijuana as well
as $700 and a shotgun at a home in the 6100 block of South Kildare
Avenue, Caluris said. The weapon was within reach of four children, he
added.

Sunday evening brought the biggest seizure, with officers collecting
1,200 pounds and a gun on the Northwest Side, Caluris said.

Caluris added that police were working with federal drug enforcement
agents to determine if the marijuana seizures represent a spike in
shipments or some other factor.