Deputies find nearly 300 marijuana plants at Calhan home; 2 Cubans detained

El Paso County deputies busted one of the larger illegal marijuana grow operations in recent months during a raid on a house in Calhan Thursday.

Deputies searched the house near Highway 24 and found about 300 cannabis plants, according to El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder. Elder’s office said the plants would have been worth about $1.5 million on the black market.

The bust was made possible by a tip from the public. El Paso County Sheriff, Bill Elder, says one thing that gives these illegal marijuana grows away is the amount of resources it takes to keep them running.

“We’ve got some extremely dangerous electric supplies,” he said. “They are using an inordinate amount of electricity.”

Jan Erik Bresil is part of the Norwegian Narcotic Officers Association. The officer came to visit Colorado to see how legalizing marijuana has affected the black market.

“The main argument in Norway is that by legalizing you take away the black market,” said Bresil.

Norway is the first Scandinavian country to decriminalize drugs, but marijuana is still illegal to use and possess there.

“We have gang problems and people say ‘oh the solution is take away the money make it legal then it will go away’,” he said.

Bresil says after seeing this raid, he doesn’t believe legalization in Colorado has cleaned up the streets.

“Work for them is so difficult. Is it the legal grow? Is it the illegal grow? Can they seize the equipment?”

Two people were home at the time of the search, and the sheriff’s office said they were detained. Their names weren’t given, but the sheriff’s office said they were Cuban nationals.

The sheriff’s office said the grow operation could be connected to a cartel but said they couldn’t identify a specific cartel at this time.

They believe the illegal marijuana grow operation had been going for more than a year.