4 in federal custody after south side pot bust
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Federal agents discovered an estimated $250,000 worth of marijuana in a warehouse on the south side of Indianapolis.
The pot bust happened in the 1000 block of Sumner Avenue.
Four people were taken into federal custody for their role in what’s being called the largest indoor pot bust in the city’s history.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and Indiana State Police spent four months looking into the operation after receiving a tip about the warehouse.
The warehouse located near Shelby and Sumner Avenue looks like any other building from the outside but behind closed doors, state police say a sophisticated drug operation was taking place.
“This wasn’t no closet grow. This was a large, very large, indoor marijuana grow operation,” said State Police Master Trooper Dan Madison.
Federal agents obtained a search warrant for the warehouse Wednesday morning and zeroed in on their target.
New photos taken inside show the massive production and the lighting it took to grow what investigators believe is 50 pounds of marijuana.
“The marijuana plants are not the typical ones you normally find in somebody’s closet,” said Madison. “They’re large, they’re at least six foot tall, there is probably about 300 of those.”
Jacob Bernath owns a pavement business right next door.
“I was surprised but it seemed a little bit shady since they moved in and now we know why our power keeps going out,” said Jacob Bernath, SealMaster owner.
He said the power in his store has gone off several times, including a blown out transformer.
“We’ve been fighting with IPL. I feel like I need to apologize to those guys because now we know what the problem is,” said Bernath. “It’s not them. It’s, you know, the guys next door sucking up all the juice.”
Bernath said he talked to one of the guys next door a couple of times before. In one conversation he remembered the man telling him that they were going to be using “a ton of power” for their work.
“He told us he was working on patents, and testing patents and designs for stuff,” said Bernath. “So he was doing a lot of testing, research, and development all top secret stuff. They changed out all the windows in the front put up new gates.”
State police said the four people arrested were renting out the property and that the owner didn’t know what was going on.
24 Hour News 8 reached out to the owner who lives out of state, but he had no comment.
In addition to the plant, investigators also found a THC extraction lab. They also served a search warrant at the homes of two suspects. Inside they found around $20,000 dollars in cash.
At this time police have not released the names of the people arrested.