Shawn Taylor GRAND RAPIDS, MI – When police searched a Muskegon warehouse on West Western Avenue, Shawn Taylor and Robert Housley took ownership of their share of 28 marijuana plants.
The West Michigan Enforcement Team, or WEMET, determined that the two complied with Michigan’s medical marijuana law.
Grand Rapids police reached the same conclusion in another case in which Taylor’s mother was robbed of marijuana plants on Prospect Avenue NE.
Later, WEMET found another grow operation on East Laketon Avenue in Muskegon where Housley again provided documents that he was legally growing medical marijuana.
Police did not know at the time that Taylor and Housley were allegedly operating multiple grow operations in Kent, Muskegon, Oceana and Ottawa counties and Traverse City, with a network of growers who were registered medical marijuana caregivers, legally allowed to grow a certain amount of the drug.
A federal investigator said that Taylor, considered the leader of the operation, sought out houses sold by owners or on land contracts, then often put them in others’ names so that they could grow medical marijuana.
“Shawn Taylor obtains real estate in this manner to circumvent traditional banking methods, launder drug proceeds and insulate himself and the (drug-trafficking organization) from law enforcement,” Patrick Frederick, a task force officer for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, wrote in court documents.
Recently unsealed documents detail issuance of 28 search warrants, wire taps and GPS locators to monitor suspects’ telephone calls, texts and activities. The documents were unsealed after indictments were filed against Taylor, Housley and 35 others in West Michigan.
Federal investigators used a search warrant at this house as part of a marijuana investigation. The government also accused Taylor of providing “high-grade marijuana” for sale in Indiana and Ohio.
Investigators in Ohio told the DEA here that a suspect was arrested for selling multiple pounds of marijuana in Ohio that originated in West Michigan. He named Phillip Huckleberry Jr. as one of several involved in the manufacture, cultivation and distribution of large quantities of marijuana in the Grand Rapids and Muskegon areas.
A suspect who started to talk to investigators shut down after Taylor hired an attorney for him, the DEA said.
Related: Feds allege medical marijuana law used as ruse, 37 indicted in West Michigan operation
Related:Michigan’s medical marijuana law no defense in multi-county marijuana case, attorney says
Calvin Brown allegedly told investigators that Taylor was the leader of the drug-trafficking organization. He said Taylor provided the marijuana plants seized from his home, and the materials needed to grow plants.
“Calvin Brown ceased to cooperate in this investigation after his bond was posted by Shawn Taylor and Taylor paid for his defense counsel,” Frederick wrote.
He said Taylor pushed to sign up patients and caregivers to substantiate the number of plants grown and processed. The wives and girlfriends of those allegedly involved were also used as caregivers or patients.
A confidential source said Taylor also worked with a doctor on “certification clinics.”
Taylor allegedly said he was helping a nurse find a storefront in the Grand Rapids area to recruit patients. He and the nurse, whose conversation was recorded, “talked openly about the number of ‘patients’ (up to 50) each day at a fee of $220 each.”
He and the nurse would share $50 per patient.
Frederick, in seeking wire taps, said Taylor “has been taking advantage of the poorly drafted Michigan Medical Marijuana Act and its non-uniform enforcement in order to illegally grow and sell large quantities of Marijuana in Michigan and Ohio,” Frederick wrote.
“Taylor uses the MMMA as a ruse to shield his illegal activity from local law enforcement. One way he does this is by maintaining numerous marijuana manufacturing operations which are scattered about West Michigan and located in different police jurisdictions. Local law enforcement has stumbled upon several manufacturing operations connected to the Taylor (drug-trafficking organization) and has failed to note the interconnectedness of them.”
John Agar covers crime for MLive/Grand Rapids Press E-mail John Agar: jagar@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReporterJAgar
Medical marijuana 'ruse?' DEA uses search warrants, wire taps and sources in arrests of 37
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