POT WORTH $1.5 MILLION SEIZED IN BARN NEAR HUNTLEY

HUNTLEY -- McHenry County sheriff's police announced Monday that they
seized three-quarters of a ton of marijuana, with a street value
estimated at $1.5 million, and arrested five men in a raid near
Huntley and Hampshire Sunday evening.

Sheriff Keith Nygren said the arrests resulted from a joint
investigation by the sheriff's department's narcotics division and
the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Nygren said
investigators became aware on Sunday that a semi-trailer truck of a
certain description contained a large shipment of marijuana and was
driving along I-90.

"It was coming from out of state, but I don't want to say where
from," the sheriff said. "We thought it would be going into Chicago.
But the truck turned off the tollway at Route 20 (in Hampshire) and
drove to an address at 14206 Harmony Road in unincorporated Huntley."

He said that address is a farm owned by a 90-year-old woman who lives
in a nursing home. He said detectives believe the woman had rented a
pole barn on the property to a member of the smuggling gang.

He said the truck drove into the pole barn and as investigators
watched, five men began unloading what looked like pallets loaded
with bags of onions, using a forklift. DEA agents and sheriff's
deputies then descended on the property and arrested the five men
involved. Nygren said they found 58 bales of processed marijuana,
weighing 1,464 pounds, each hidden inside a bag of onions. Officers
also seized $8,000 in cash.

The five each were charged with possession of cannabis with intent to
deliver, a Class X felony, and possession of cannabis, a Class 1
felony. Arrested were [names of 5 persons omitted to protect privacy].

They were being held Monday evening in the McHenry County Jail,
awaiting a bond hearing today.