DEA Caught Channahon Man Growing Pot After He Shopped At Same Garden Center As Shorewood Woman Charged With Having 9 Grams

Patch obtained evidence of a second DEA investigation undertaken after a local resident shopped at an indoor garden center.

A 39-year-old Channahon man was charged with producing cannabis plants, the manufacture or delivery of cannabis and possession of cannabis after he shopped at Midwest Hydroganics in March 2012.

The man's name was redacted from the complaint for a search warrant and the search warrant provided by Joliet attorney Jeff Tomczak, but information shows he pleaded guilty to the manufacture or delivery of cannabis in February 2013 and the other two charges were dismissed.

The same DEA task force member who launched the investigation into the Channahon man was also behind the probe of a 46-year-old Shorewood artist charged with possessing nine grams of marijuana in October.

The woman, Angela Kirking, said she and her pet terrier woke to find four flak-jacketed DEA agents and five Shorewood cops in the bedroom of her Ranchwood Drive home at 5 a.m. Oct. 11. At least one of the agents held her at gunpoint before the 9 grams were allegedly found.

Tomczak, who is Kirking's attorney, has challenged the legitimacy of the search warrant used to gain entry to Kirking's home.

Like the Channahon man, the law took an interest in Kirking after she shopped at Midwest Hydroganics. Federal agents then rooted through her garbage and compared her electric bill to those of a couple neighbors.

The agents would have liked more opportunity to sift through the Channahon man's trash but it was "only placed at the curb on two separate occasions" over the 18 week investigation, according to an affidavit. This reportedly led an agent to believe the man had tried to "conceal the presence of an indoor grow operation" by dumping his "garbage at other locations."

When the agent and Channahon police went into the man's house in July, they found a single marijuana plant growing under a light, 98 grams of cannabis in a jar, and an assortment of growing equipment and material, a source said.

Tomczak said he has heard of even more cases that started from the DEA staking out Midwest Hydroganics after Patch published a story about Kirking Friday.

"As this became known publicly, other attorneys have been contacting me, including one attorney who provided me a copy of another search warrant," he said. "This search warrant began exclusively and solely because the individual shopped at that store."

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