[420 Girl]

HUNTLEY -- McHenry County sheriff's police announced Monday that they seized three-quarters of a ton of marijuana, with a street value estimated at $1.5 million, and arrested five men in a raid near Huntley and Hampshire Sunday evening.

Sheriff Keith Nygren said the arrests resulted from a joint investigation by the sheriff's department's narcotics division and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Nygren said investigators became aware on Sunday that a semi-trailer truck of a certain description contained a large shipment of marijuana and was driving along I-90.

"It was coming from out of state, but I don't want to say where from," the sheriff said. "We thought it would be going into Chicago. But the truck turned off the tollway at Route 20 (in Hampshire) and drove to an address at 14206 Harmony Road in unincorporated Huntley."

He said that address is a farm owned by a 90-year-old woman who lives in a nursing home. He said detectives believe the woman had rented a pole barn on the property to a member of the smuggling gang.

He said the truck drove into the pole barn and as investigators watched, five men began unloading what looked like pallets loaded with bags of onions, using a forklift. DEA agents and sheriff's deputies then descended on the property and arrested the five men involved. Nygren said they found 58 bales of processed marijuana, weighing 1,464 pounds, each hidden inside a bag of onions. Officers also seized $8,000 in cash.

The five each were charged with possession of cannabis with intent to deliver, a Class X felony, and possession of cannabis, a Class 1 felony. Arrested were Kip Ernest Dalke, 32, of Pingree Grove; Jesus Raymond Padilla, 34, of Hanover Park; Alfredo Bautista, 30, of Frankfort; Carlos Martin Rodriguez, 32, of Hazel Crest; and Guillermo Rodriguez, 44, of Blue Island.

They were being held Monday evening in the McHenry County Jail, awaiting a bond hearing today.

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