Marijuana grow uncovered near Chickaloon

MAT-SU — Alaska State Troopers serving a search warrant in Chickaloon Thursday turned up 505 marijuana plants.

According to an affidavit investigator Mike Ingram filed in the case against Daniel G. Nowacki, 57, of Chickaloon, troopers found four marijuana gardens and six lighting systems in a large outbuilding on a property off the Glenn Highway near Mile 72.

Sgt. Rob Langendorfer with the Mat-Su Narcotics Unit said the outbuilding was basically a converted garage with multiple rooms inside set up for the gardens.

There were 156 budding plants, 96 in the vegetative stage and 253 starter plants, Ingram says in his affidavit.

Nowacki was found in a nearby one-story cabin lying on his bed. He told troopers he lived there but little else about the pot grow, Ingram says.

“Without being asked any further questions, he stated that he would be ‘killed’ if he talked about the operation,” the affidavit says.

The property, according to troopers, belongs to someone else.

Langendorfer said the investigation is in its initial stages. Investigators are working to figure out who else might have been involved.

Nowacki was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility, charged with four counts of fourth-degree drug misconduct.

Ingram, citing seven years’ experience as a trooper, 3.5 years working with the Mat-Su Narcotics Unit and more than 100 commercial marijuana grows he’s taken down, says in his affidavit that the grow was obviously a money-making or commercial operation.

“With the exception of about three marijuana joints, I did not find any other types of marijuana paraphernalia on the property or anything else to suggest that marijuana was being grown for personal consumption,” he says.

Langendorfer said that the size of the grow was significant. Lately, the bulk of marijuana gardens troopers have taken down have fallen into the 30- to 40-plant range, he said.

“A few years back it may not have been considered large,” Langendorfer said.

Still, Thursday’s bust of more than 500 plants is not the biggest he’s seen this year.

“It is one of the largest ones so far this year,” Langendorfer said. “It’s close.”

Nowacki is being held in lieu of $30,000 bail and will need to find a third-party custodian before he can be released.

In serving the search warrant, the Mat-Su Narcotic Unit, which includes troopers and officers from the Palmer and Wasilla police departments, had assistance from Palmer patrol troopers, a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agent, the Alaska Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Enforcement’s major offender’s unit and the National Guard’s Counter Drug Support Program.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiers-man.com or 352-2270.