GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Raids at two Grand Rapids smoke shops last week yielded marijuana that was being illegally sold and stolen property, police say.
The Flavors shops on Leonard Street NW west of Turner Avenue and S. Division Avenue near Withey Street, plus PMC Private Stock, which is in the same S. Division building as Flavors, were searched Thursday.
The Grand Rapids Police Department said in a Monday release that it seized more than 30 pounds of marijuana, “retail sized” packages of marijuana buds, THC vape cartridges and THC edibles, which the Flavors shops are not licensed to sell.
Police noted that some of the marijuana investigators found “is consistent with the types of products stolen from legal dispensaries in the area.”
GRPD said it also found stolen property during the search. It is still investigating whether the shops may have been linked to other crimes, like thefts of cars to be used in smash-and-grabs and the sale of stolen goods.
“The investigation into these properties had been underway for a few months but the warrants were accelerated by recent violence in the Burton Heights area,” as well as information that a Wisconsin murder suspect may be there, the release from GRPD said.
Officers arrested Julian Kelly, a suspect in a killing in Milwaukee, at the Leonard Street Flavors shop.
GRPD said Kelly is not considered a suspect in the shooting deaths of three people in the Burton Heights neighborhood on Nov. 6.
At the S. Division scene last week, GRPD Capt. Terri Dixon said the search warrants were unrelated to the killings of Malik Eubanks, Anayia Rodriguez and Darryl Yarber.
But at a Saturday vigil for the three, the GRPD chief was less definitive:
“I won’t say it’s completely different because when these three murders happened that day, we immediately had a meeting and said, what is driving violence? Running through theories, looking for motives,” Chief Eric Winstrom said. “Whether or not that ties directly to murder is something I am not able to talk about right now, but we are definitely headed in the right direction on this homicide.”
Winstrom said in a Monday statement that GRPD was “gratified” to help Milwaukee police find Kelly.
“Even more so that the raids resulted in evidence of criminal activity that directly impacts us here in Grand Rapids, in our community. I am hopeful that when all the evidence and all the leads are followed, we will be able to make more arrests,” the statement continued.
Anyone with information about any crime can call GRPD detectives at 616.456.3380 or Silent Observer at 616.774.2345.
