A burned-out electricity transformer led Colorado Springs police to a marijuana growing site that was among at least seven searched May 12 in an ongoing investigation that police say uncovered ??clandestine and illegal? drug operations, but so far have resulted in no arrests.
According to the affidavit submitted to El Paso County Court Judge Marla Rochelle Prudek that led to police searching a warehouse where marijuana was being grown, the business was using an abnormally high amount of electricity, damaging the transformer. A Colorado Springs Utilities repair crew in March noticed condensation on windows covered with black plastic sheeting.
Their observations were reported to police, and detective M. Lehmkuhl determined the warehouse was occupied by a business registered with the Secretary of State??s Office that included ??caregiver? as part of its incorporated name. Caregiver is the term widely adopted by dispensaries and growers since voters approved a medical marijuana ballot measure in 2000.
The Gazette agreed not to reveal the location of the warehouse in obtaining a copy of the search warrant from the business owner.
Lehmkuhl, according to the affidavit, determined that the owner of the business had been convicted of a felony in 1998 for growing marijuana. In April, Lehmkuhl went to the warehouse, where he saw, through an open door, several plants he suspected were marijuana.
Lehmkuhl then enlisted the help of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which sent a plane with thermal imaging equipment and two federal Border Patrol agents to Colorado Springs.
In late April, Lehmkuhl and the federal agents flew over the warehouse and the thermal imaging equipment recorded the warehouse was generating a lot of heat.
His experience investigating drug operations and the evidence he??d gathered led Lehmkuhl to conclude that ??there is a clandestine marijuana growing operation being conducted at the address,? the detective stated in the affidavit seeking the search warrant.
That search, and others by the region??s Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence squad, were blasted at the time by dispensary owners and representatives of the local medical marijuana industry, some of whom said it amounted to harassment by local law enforcement officials opposed to medical marijuana.
??Marijuana growers are always going to be discreet because we??re afraid of people ripping us off,? said one grower whose site was searched two weeks ago. ??It??s not the police we??re afraid of, although it appears we now have to be afraid of the police.?
Bob Wiley of Sensible Colorado, a nonprofit that advocates for drug policy reforms, questioned the resources that went into investigating a grower who, he said, is just as likely to be a legal provider of medical marijuana as a criminal.
??It sounds like a waste of money,? Wiley said Tuesday. ??Why didn??t they just knock on the door and ask, ??Are you part of a legitimate medical marijuana growing operation???
??There may be criminal activity, but, if not, they??re going after legitimate dispensaries.?
Wiley called that ??intimidation? tactics, and a ??reprehensible? attempt to force medical marijuana back on to the black market.
Police spokesman Sgt. Steve Noblitt declined to comment on the investigation, but maintained that police had reason to suspect illegal activity at all of the sites searched.
??The bottom line is you have to have probable cause to suspect illegal activity is going on and a judge has to agree,? Noblitt said. ??Obviously, in these cases, a judge agreed.?
None of the cases has yet been submitted to the 4th Judicial District Attorney??s Office, which will determine if charges are filed, he said.
Affidavit: Marijuana grower tripped up by transformer | marijuana, police, transformer - Public Safety - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO
