| Photo: Cook County Sheriff’s Office |
| Here is one of the Zimmermans’ enviable grow operations. Since the photo is from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, this must have been the dad’s growroom. Nice! |
An old man and his middle-aged son have been arrested on marijuana charges for cultivating cannabis in their homes, the Cook County Sheriff’s office said Tuesday.
Sheriff’s police estimate the seizures at both homes totaled “about $3 million to $5 million” at those mythical “street prices” they keep promising us.
Jay Zimmerman, 69, and his son Alan Zimmerman, 42, owned homes in Skokie, Illinois and Chesterton, Indiana, reports Chicago Breaking News. The father was charged with manufacturing and delivery of marijuana, a felony. The son was charged with felony possession of marijuana and possession of “drug paraphernalia.”
| Photo: Chicago Sun-Times |
| Multiple rooms of Alan Zimmerman’s Chesterton, Ind., home were used to cultivate marijuana, according to authorities. |
More charges against both men are expected, according to the sheriff’s office, which is undoubtedly planning to go through the usual routine of piling on charges, then taking them back off one-by-one in the painful process of plea-bargaining.
The investigation started when a Cook County Sheriff’s narcotics officer “developed a lead” on a “suspected grow house operation” in Cook County, the sheriff’s office said. After “an extended period of surveillance,” (which sounds very expensive — remember, it’s your tax money, folks) the investigation also led to the elder Zimmerman’s home in Skokie.
Police were eventually able to obtain search warrants for both homes.
| Photo: Chicago Sun-Times |
| Police claimed they seized close to 90 pounds of marijuana from the two grow houses |
Cook County Sheriff’s officers, Porter County (Indiana) narcotics officers and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration served the warrant at the son’s residence in Chesterton, Ind., on July 28, where they arrested Jay Zimmerman.
The officers claimed they found what, in their minds, was “an extensive and sophisticated grow operation.”
Sheriff’s police claimed that multiple rooms were used to cultivate and process marijuana. They added that grow lamps, air purifiers and an “elaborate” (what does that mean, that it actually worked?) watering and filtration system were set up in the basement.
| Photo: Cook County Sheriff’s Office |
| Jay Zimmerman, 69, and his son Alan Zimmerman, 42, were charged after marijuana was found growing in both of their homes. |
The officers seized 383 marijuana plants, an additional “22,700 grams of marijuana,” (why didn’t they just say “50 pounds”?), three 12-gauage shotguns, four assault rifles and a Glock .45-caliber pistol, a 1999 Nissan Pathfinder, a 2002 Nissan Pathfinder and a 2009 Harley Davidson motorcycle.
That same day, Cook County Sheriff’s officers and Skokie police found a smaller marijuana operation in the elder Zimmerman’s home in Skokie, Ill. Sheriff’s officers claimed they found and seized “17,252 grams of marijuana,” (why didn’t they just say “39 pounds”?), two handguns and an assault rifle.
Alan Zimmerman is being held without bail in the Porter County Jail. His next scheduled court date is October 5 in Porter County Court.
His father, Jay Zimmerman, is scheduled to appear August 27 in Cook County Court in Skokie. His bail was originally set at $10,000.