Pot ‘Grow House Network’ Busted in Illinois. $4 Million in Weed

When the veteran police officers refer to the marijuana grow operation as "the most sophisticated indoor grow operation they had ever seen," you know it's something special. CBSNews

Here are some random details of this sophisticated grow operation, inhale all this info:

• It was all hidden behind a fake wall.
• Investigators found a nursery for young plants
• There was a grid area for medium sized plants
• An additional area filled with mature budding plants.
• The whole operation was automated
• Lights turned on electronically
• So did the sprinkler system that hydrated the plants with fertilized water
• Fans throughout generated breezes
• Industrial sized filters were used to hide the sticky icky smell

Whoa, this is intense!!! The police were quoted as saying that the EQUIPMENT alone, worth $50,000.

This was all found in an apartment building on Warren Boulevard near Kedzie Avenue in Chicago, wow! These guys has rooms and rooms full of "Christmas trees" as one officer described it.

This was a multiple building bust, quite the operation. In one building alone...499 plants. That has a street value of about $4 million!

"The sale of cannabis fuels the street gangs and by disrupting their revenue stream we feel we can have an impact on street violence," - Cmdr. James O'Grady

There was another building that 630 plants were found, these guys were having high times in a high rise for sure. But of course, the bad guys never win...So we have this story.

The Chicago Police Department's Central Anti-Violence Task Force did their thing and these apartments can be used, for living now.