UPDATE: Routine Eviction Turns Up $40K Grow House Operation, Weapons

A routine eviction in Glenview Wednesday morning turned up a marijuana grow house and weapons cache, resulting in one arrest by the Cook County Sheriff’s department. 

Juro Konstantinov, 33, was charged with felony possession of cannabis and five counts of possession of a firearm without a Firearms Owners Identification card. Konstantinov also has a warrant from Monroe County, New York for trafficking in stolen property.

Later Wednesday afternoon,  arrested two women on criminal trespass charges when they returned to the home at 1427 Evergreen Terrace to try and retrieve property.

Routine eviction leads to raid

It started about 10 a.m. as a routine eviction for failure to pay rent, police said. When the occupants did not answer their door, the CSO unit that handles evictions used a battering ram to break open the door. Upon discovering a grow house, the Glenview police were called in to help preserve the crime scene until more CSO units could arrive.

Nearly fifty plants – 14 mature and 33 seedlings – were growing in plain sight in the house, according to a CSO press release, and Konstantinov told police he also had weapons in the home. Deputies recovered five loaded and unlicensed weapons – two pistols, two rifles, a shotgun and “large quantities of ammunition.”

Narcotics deputies also seized 11 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $40,000.

Other occupants were evicted but not arrested Wednesday, including another adult and two children, witnesses said. The sheriff’s department called child protective services to take care of the minors, according to the press release.

Additional arrests

Later Wednesday afternoon, Glenview police say they arrested two women on charges of criminal trespass after they attempted to re-enter the home and retrieve belongings.

Dragana Mulitinovic, 30, of 612 Windsor Dr., and Meci Konstantinov, 33, who lived in the raided home, were both later released on $1,000.00 bond.

Two witnesses said they heard the women complain they were being persecuted because they were “gypsies,” and that at least six children who accompanied them to the house were picked up by other relatives or friends.

Glenview police sources said the house was “known to” police, but declined to cite the nature of the department’s previous calls to the residence.

Neighbor Seth Knobel, who witnessed the afternoon arrests and lives half a block away, said there have been two domestic violence calls at the address in the past year.

“I was a little embarrassed because this is all going on under my nose in this neighborhood,” Knobel said of the grow house. “I walk my dog past that house."

A next-door neighbor, Taso Kokkinias, said so many people frequented the house – including “six or seven” children – that he believed more than one family lived there.

Kokkinias said the house’s occupants kept to themselves.

The property is currently managed by Residential Dynamics Group, and was purchased in a foreclosure sale in June of 2010 for $520,000 according to online property transaction records. 

The previous owner bought the property for $1,295,000 in January of 2007, according to online records search.

On Thursday, the management company installed an alarm system on the boarded-up home, turned off the water, and removed the water meter.

Stay tuned to Glenview Patch for updates.