Urbana police uncover 2 marijuana grow ops

The execution of drug-related search warrants the past several days have yielded indoor marijuana grow operations, evidence of other drug-related crimes and two arrests, Urbana Police Chief Matt Lingrell said Tuesday night.

About 5:30 Tuesday morning, police found a grow operation at 314 Miami St., Apt. 2, a little less than five hours after they visited the residents, 57-year-old Steven Inskeep and 48-year-old Sonda Shafer, at the address just after 1 a.m.

Both were taken into custody and then released, Lingrell said, noting the department plans to present multiple criminal charges against them to a Champaign County grand jury. Inskeep and Shafer have multiple drug-related convictions, the chief said.

Police seized numerous plants in various stages of growth and a large quantity of dried finished product in the apartment. Officers needed several hours to transport the operation to the police evidence/property control facility, Lingrell said.

At 3:53 p.m., Tuesday, using information gathered at the Miami Street raid, police executed a search warrant at 10257 E. State Route 36, a property leased to Inskeep. There, another large marijuana grow operation was found. This time, Champaign County sheriff’s deputies helped police remove the evidence.

On Sunday, March 29, police executed a drug-related search warrant raid at 113 ½ E. Church St. and found evidence linking several individuals to felony and misdemeanor drug crimes involving prescription medicines, marijuana and a theft case.

No formal charges have been filed in the Church Street raid, but police made the following arrests stemming from that raid:

• Hunter M. Dean, 20, on a theft warrant out of Springfield

• Ernest R. Lamere, 26, of 424 S. Walnut St., Urbana, on a warrant for failure to appear out of Springfield

The residents of the Church Street apartment, 43-year-old Christina McDonald and her 23-year-old son, Shane Moore, were not arrested. Dean is Moore’s girlfriend, according to police.

Just like the Miami Street and East State Route 36 raids, the Church Street raid will be presented to a county grand jury, Lingrell said.

He said police have served five drug-related search warrants since March 25 and have recovered felony drug crime evidence at each location searched.

Since 2013, when his department began a new strategy to combat drug crimes in Urbana, police have conducted 18 search-warrant raids that have led to dozens of felony arrests and convictions, the confiscation of drugs and drug paraphernalia and the removal several firearms being kept illegally.

Anyone with information about drug abuse and trafficking crimes is asked to call Urbana police at 937-652-4350 or the department’s Crime/Drug Tip Line at 937-652-4357.