2 Arrested After Illegal Car Crushing; Marijuana Grow Operation Busted by Police
It isn’t every day you run into an illegal car crushing operation that also happens to be a marijuana grow house. Part of the Detroit Police Department, the Commercial Auto Theft Unit, arrested the suspects Wednesday afternoon. A variety of cars, trucks, and SUVs were presumed to be stolen vehicles from around the Detroit area.
The illegal car crushing and marijuana grow operation was in a Detroit junkyard
According to Fox 2 Detroit, police stumbled upon quite the operation the other day while looking for a chop shop. This particular situation involved an illegal car crushing operation at Auto Planet on Schafer Highway. Employees of Auto Planet were using fake paperwork to cover up the car crushing.
Police found the employees working at Auto Planet and arrested the pair for running a “chop shop and a criminal enterprise,” the news station said. While investigating the scene, police found partially crushed cars and, surprisingly, an illegal grow house operation.
On the property, police observed dilapidated vehicles strewn about. Pieces of a large Cadillac Escalade SUV and a small BMW 3 Series were visible sitting on other crushed cars. It appears this operation was part of more illegal car crushing happening in the Detroit area.
The local police confiscated a large car crushing machine from the scene
In the report by Click On Detroit, thieves would steal cars and dump the vehicles at this car crushing operation. Video shows the police entering the building with force and happening upon many marijuana plants. Police also located a sizeable portable car crusher used to destroy “hundreds” of cars.
Lieutenant Clive Stewart of the Detroit Police department commented that the suspects might sell the stolen cars for scrap money or “hide the fact that the vehicles were stolen.” One news reporter called it a “criminal enterprise” due to the large number of vehicles located at the shop.
The hundreds of marijuana plants on the property were just the icing on the proverbial criminal cake. The grow setup looked quite sophisticated for what it was. The criminals locked the plants in a climate-controlled room behind a hefty door.
This is the second major chop shop to get busted in the area this week
The police impounded the car crusher as evidence and took some of the vehicles. It isn’t clear if owners reported any of the cars as recently stolen or not, but the VIN will likely offer more information. The police arrested two people, but no further information was available.
This is the second chop shop in Detroit in the past two weeks, with Fox 2 Detroit noting that police found another on W. Chicago road. Officers found more than $100,000 in stolen parts and cars on the scene. Officers located a stolen 2014 GMC Sierra, plus the engine and door of a 2012 Dodge Challenger sedan. Similarly, police also found the front half of a 2007 Honda Civic, three doors and trunk lid of a 2017 Lincoln MKZ, and the engine, transmission, and trunk lid of a 2013 Chrysler 300. The authorities arrested one 30-year-old Dearborn man concerning this specific instance.
In conclusion, those operating an illegal car crushing operation in Michigan might want to reconsider before it is too late. The Detroit police department is well aware of the situation at hand and seems to be locating more operations every week.
