Crime & Safety

Deputies Seize 19 Pounds of Pot from Golden Valley Man's Home

Carl Darrell Looyen was charged with felony drug distribution after sheriff's deputies found large quantities of marijuana and cash along with scales and packaging items in his home.

A Golden Valley man has been charged with selling marijuana after police say they found more than 19 pounds of marijuana in his home.

Carl Darrell Looyen, 58, is charged with fifth-degree drug distribution, a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of three years in prison.

According to the criminal complaint, signed by Golden Valley Police Department Officer Ryan Matthew, officers executed a narcotics search warrant at Looyen’s home in the 3000 block of Golden Valley Road at about 6 p.m. Aug. 24.

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Officers found two people in the home: Looyen and an unidentified woman. As deputies entered, Looyen “spontaneously” told them that he had a handgun under the cushion on which he was sitting, and that there was another one beneath the mattress of a bed upstairs, according to the complaint.

Looyen also told deputies that the woman wasn’t involved in “anything going on here,” the complaint says.

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Deputies searched the home and found three weapons: a revolver beneath the mattress, a .22-caliber long rifle under the mattress and a loaded pistol in the couch, holding a magazine with 13 rounds.

Officers also seized $4,375 in cash from a safe in the bedroom, scales and drug-packaging items and “numerous” small plastic bags of a substance that tested positive for marijuana, according to the complaint.

The marijuana weighed 8,662 grams, or more than 19 pounds, according to deputies.

Looyen was arrested on the Hennepin County drug charge and on an outstanding Crow Wing County arrest warrant dating back to 1998. In that case, Looyen was convicted of possession of stolen property.

Looyen is in custody on the Crow Wing County conviction. An omnibus hearing in his Hennepin County drug case is scheduled Oct. 2 in Hennepin County District Court.

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