GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Police Department has provided new information on two raids of Grand Rapids businesses that took place Thursday afternoon.
According to Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom the two businesses, Flavors on Leonard and Flavors Smoke Shop on Division, had been participating in illegal activity.
Winstrom said it had been on their radar ahead of the raids that a business was potentially buying stolen items from young people in the city.
He said this could be related to incidents where Kia or Hyundai cars are stolen and used in "smash and grab" burglaries of cannabis dispensaries and vape shops.
Winstrom said despite not being allowed to sell marijuana, the smoke shop had over 10 pounds of it that was being sold in the back room.
"To have adults in the city, especially business people, kind of driving this culture of criminality in our young people was just disgusting," Winstrom said.
According to Winstrom, GRPD also executed a search warrant at the Leonard location of Flavors and arrested a homicide suspect from Milwaukee who had been working the counter at the shop.
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