Marijuana grow operation busted in Allen Park

ALLEN PARK, Mich. (WJBK) - An Allen Park rental home was raided, but no one was found living there. Instead police say it was converted into a marijuana grow house brimming with pot plants.

Police say the melted blinds in the window were one of the obvious signs that something seedy was happening at the home. Police add that a certain smell could be smelled from blocks around, aided by a large vent on the roof that could give new meaning to smoke stack.

"It smelled like marijuana or strange smells, skunk-ish, is what they had termed it as," says Det. James Thorburn. "We as detectives help our city police, went and investigated it, confirmed that it appeared suspicious and turned it over to DRANO."

DRANO stands for Downriver Alcohol Narcotics Organization, and is managed by the Michigan State Police.

The house at the center of the investigation is tucked into a quiet little neighborhood in Allen Park at the end of a dead end street. Neighbors tell us it was a rental property for more than a year, but police say no one actually lived inside the house.

The only occupants, according to police, were pot plants, which would explain the melted blinds. High powered lamps helping to grow the marijuana. The operation was aided even more by reflective insulation on the windows.

Neighbors reported investigators taking away the grow operation by the garbage bag. Police tell us there are untold side effects from an operation such as this.

"If you have marijuana in a home and it's used as a grow operation - used solely as a grow operation - you have issues like humidity, black mold, environmental issues within in home that will cause that home to be unsuitable, uninhabitable for future people," says Thorburn.

Police say charges are pending and the findings have been turned over to the Wayne County Prosecutor.