Police break up two pot-growing operations

Updated: November 24, 2012 6:16AM

Police reportedly found two indoor marijuana-growing operations in unrelated cases Friday.

Will County Cooperative Police Assistance Team Director Mike Weber said Jason H. Kroiss, 32, came to the attention of authorities during a joint investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Early Friday morning narcotics officers executed a search warrant at 320 Algonquin St. in Joliet.

“There was a wall on rollers in the basement that concealed 59 cannabis plants and a growing operation,” Weber said. Police also reportedly seized 135 grams of packaged marijuana and $820 from the residence.

Kroiss was booked into the county jail around 9:45 a.m. on charges of production of pot plants and marijuana possession and released Saturday evening after posting 10 percent of his $50,000 bond.

As Kroiss was being booked, Bolingbrook police were heading to Route 53 and Beaconridge Drive after an anonymous caller said a man in a red Cadillac was “passing pieces of tin foil to another subject in a vehicle,” Lt. Mike Rompa said.

Officers pulled over Daniel Martinez, 23, of 417 Greentree Lane, and found he driving on a suspended license and had a warrant for failing to appear in court on a DUI charge.

The Cadillac was impounded and Rompa said police found seven tinfoil packages weighing approximately two grams that tested positive for amphetamine.

“Upon further investigation officers discovered (Martinez) was growing cannabis plants in his house. Officers located four cannabis plants inside the residence. Along with the plants were materials for growing cannabis plants and a scale for packaging drugs,” Rompa said.

Martinez’s pot plants were found inside a bathroom vanity, Rompa said.

Martinez was booked into the county jail on charges of production of marijuana plants, narcotics possession, driving on a suspended license and operating an uninsured vehicle.

He remained in the county jail Monday on a $60,000 bond.

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