By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A $25,000 arrest warrant has been issued for a Pierce County man alleged to be behind an unlicensed marijuana growing operation in a rented building in Chehalis’s industrial district.
Steven D. Smith, 39, and two individuals who told police they worked for Smith tending the plants are charged each with one count of manufacture of marijuana.
Christopher M. Hannigan and Regina V.S. Champaco, both 41 years old and both residing at the same address in Tacoma, appeared before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday afternoon. They were allowed release on unsecured signature bonds.
Charging documents in the case identify the building only as on State Street in Chehalis, with no address, and note it shares a common wall with a neighboring business. Documents indicate a case number associated with the Lewis County Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team.
A Chehalis detective was contacted in March about the possible marijuana growing there and the investigation led to a traffic stop for a broken windshield of a suspect vehicle as it left the building’s parking lot on Match 17, according to court documents.
The Tacoma couple said they were working for Smith, according to court documents. Hannigan said he’d built grow rooms and was paid $2,000 a month for the work, according to court documents.
When law enforcement searched the building, they found more than 400 marijuana plants in various stages of growth, charging documents allege.
Among the early clues, listed in court documents: the detective went to the manager of the neighboring business, which shared a wall, and learned there was mold growing in his building and who said when he spoke about it to Richard Na, the son of the building’s owner, Na just laughed it off.
When the Chehalis detective visited the exterior of the building, he could smell the odor of fresh marijuana outside and located items in the trash such as a broken fan, a broken thermostat, fertilizer and potting soil.
Detectives checked the power usage for the building and discovered a tremendous increase when January of this year was compared with September of 2014.
Police could not find either a Chehalis business license or any application to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board on file.
The building’s owner is not named in the court documents.
On March 23, the detective contacted Na directly, who said he rented to Smith for $5,000 per month and Smith pays the electric bill which runs about $1,300 each month, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello wrote in charging documents.
Na indicated Smith told him he had medical authorizations to grow for multiple people and would have no more marijuana than was allowed by law, according to Masiello.
When told there were over 400 plants and not the 75 Na had anticipated, Na appeared surprised, Masiello wrote.
Law enforcement tried to locate Smith at his home in Lakewood, but were unsuccessful.
On June 23, Lewis County prosecutors filed charges against all three, sought and secured the arrest warrant for Smith, and also requested court summons to be issued for Hannigan and Champaco.
They were late to their court hearing yesterday afternoon and the judge had already authorized warrants for their arrest, but essentially tore them up, defense attorney Joely O’Rourke said.
Manufacture of marijuana is a class C felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Hannigan and Champaco were ordered to return to court on July 21 for their arraignments.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Who cares what people grow. Government always wants their hand in any money anyone makes. There’s real crimes to concern police with other than growing plants. America is so ass backwards.
They’re trying to crush medical so the recreational shops can get all those taxes the LCB is missing out on.
Medical doesn’t have unnecessary excise tax. $8 – $12 / gram in rec shops is $16 – $30 / gram. Get it?
Dr gringo the point is the marijuana system is so flawed they can’t save guard the product and money for doing so is already spent.
Looks like you’re trying to have it both ways, Brickleberry. On the one hand, you say, “Govt intervention is a form of communism. Regulation is not a free market.” Fair enough, but later in your post you say, “The growers send the stuff in for testing by 3rd party private companies with no govt standard or inspection for safety and quality like most agricultural products.” In other words, none of the intervention or regulation you’d earlier complained about.
I’m a libertarian to the point that I prefer free markets, but with without some form of government standards to hold everything together, we have anarchy and a quick reading of “Lord of the Flies” or any stories about Seattle’s Jungle (which is anarchy in its fullest flowering) shows how that can turn out.
Sounds like the grow room builder wanted to be equal partners when he was shot down because he didnt have the investment capital to begin with he turned narc. Im sure he would have kept quiet if he would have been paid more. The police are playing into their little games. Thats why we need an unregulated system. Too much abuse on both side of the law. Its basically indoor farming. Its work. Let the capitalistic model of free enterprise do its magic let the chips fall where they may.
Govt intervention is a form of communism. Regulation is not a free market. Marijuana is over taxed. The safety or quality of which cannot be guaranteed by the govt. Taxes are going to pay off a state deficit caused by uneeded programs, welfare and careless spending.
Not on insuring the public consumers are getting untainted
marijuana in its purest form. In essence we are selling over fertilized ‘green poison’ grown at unnatural rates for profit. Not to mention mold and mite poop that could make people sick. The growers send the stuff in for testing by 3rd party private companies with no govt standard or inspection for safety and quality like most agricultural products. We have the carriage before the horse. A deficit and a solution? NO.
Marijuana is not the solution to our tax woes or poor govt fiscal management. Marijuana is not the self-cure for liberalism. It is a gift from god. Let it be treated as such. It is a agricultural product if anything not a pawn on a govt hippie fantasy board game. Over taxation and unregulated regulation is asking for problems. The MJ tax money is already spent. Too many cops, govt employees and dead end projects. Marijuana prosecution is form of corruption. Time to point the finger at whos really to blame; Politicians not listening to public on legalization, filling their own coffers first, selling a product they cant quarantee its safety? The real drug dealers. Your state legislature. Your Governor.
Quit thinking you live in a hippie utopia because you can buy a gram at the local rec shop. Its far from it.
Yep opened Hub City Natural Medicine on Tower Ave. The CPD manufactured Fraudulent Medical Cannabis Cards, Purchased the Non narcotic herb then raided the the establishment. The CPD spent tens of thousands of dollars conducting the investigation and committed felonys making the Medical cards to purchase the God given herb. I spent four hours on jail and paid no find nor was I given probation for my victimless crime. Lets look at the money lost over the raid. The community pool is still closed and a valuble MMJ resourse was deprived from the sick and dying. What a joke the whole bust turned out to be. There were no victims except the community which still is without a swimming pool, yet the money for the raid is forever gone and now marijuana is legal and was then. Thr problem is Lewis County is located on the planet Mars and still is. Fix the community pool before more money is wasted on a harmless plant. Repeat after me, No victim no crime, no victim no crime. Jury Nolifacation let the Judges and DA know you wont convict for a victimless crime. It is your duty to let members of the jury to find the defendant not guilty in marijuana drug cases. CPD spend money body cameras and dash cameras. Show the community you care about what the voters approved
Great job of reducing the number of dollars flowing through the community. A property owner is out rent, the electric company is out a high-value client, equipment stores, hardware stores, and garden stores are also out a high-value customer.
Great job at keeping everybody just a little bit poorer.
Bravo JNET!
Welcome to Mars, opps I meant Lewis County. Who cares if they were growing Marijuana, what happenef to equal rights for all’ over 37,000 people died from alcohol related deaths last year, yet you can buy the crap at any corner store. Opiate pills are killing by the thousands and so is Tylenol. Yet a plant that causes no deaths is illegal. Attention people of the Jury it is your right to find prople not guilty of Marijuana crimes, stop the drug war with your vote on the jury. Not Guilty, the Government officials should be ashamed of themselves. Either Marijuanas legal or its not. What came first the chicken or the egg? You can have under an ounce of cannabis yet you cant have more than that nor can you grow it. Makes no sense it’s a plant placed here by God, how can you defy God? Either take your country back or wake up as a Slave in your homeland. Spread the word to the Jury, freedom starts with you. No victim no crime, no victim no crime. Say it with me. No victim no crime, no victim no crime thete you go, no victim no crime. Jury Nolification folks