Algonquin Resident Charged With Marijuana Growing In DuPage

An Algonquin resident remains in DuPage County Jail this morning pending $20,000 bail charged with cultivating hundreds of marijuana plants in a forest preserve southwest of Bartlett.  Marcelino Villa-Rodriguez, 28, of the 200 block of Blackhawk Trail is charged with production or possession of more than 200 marijuana plants, manufacturing cannabis with an intent to deliver, and criminal damage to property.

It all started more than a week ago when a DuPage County Forest Preserve District police officer looking for illegal deer stands stumbled across a thee-plot grow operation in Pratt’s Wayne Woods.  Police staked it out and Thursday arrested Villas-Rodriguez after they said they watched him pruning the pot plants.  Other police searching nearby said they found processed marijuana in containers and sheds on non-Forest Preserve property, too. 

Authorities estimated the street value of the unharvested marijuana at $1.4 million, the processed stuff at roughly $45,000.

In the pic: Marcelino Villa-Rodriguez