A Lake County man is headed to prison for running an indoor marijuana cultivation operation inside an Elburn building he was leasing.

Thirty-six-year-old Maksim Gokhman of Grayslake on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018, agreed to a sentence of 7½ years’ imprisonment in the Illinois Department of Corrections in exchange for a guilty plea to unlawful possession of cannabis with intent to deliver, Class X felony.

Maksim Gokhman

Kane County Circuit Judge John A. Barsanti accepted the plea.

Kane County Assistant State’s Attorney Andrew Whitfield stated in court that on March 6, 2018, Kane County Sheriff’s investigators arrested Gokhman at a business in the 700 block of North Main Street, Elburn, on multiple outstanding warrants.

They had been investigating Gokhman on suspicion of drug offenses. After placing Gokhman under arrest investigators found 250 grams of marijuana in Gokhman’s car. They then obtained a search warrant for a building in the 200 block of West Nebraska Street, Elburn, that Gokhman was leasing.

Inside the building they found more than 200 marijuana plants of varying strains, more than 30,000 grams of processed marijuana, and items consistent with drug dealing, such as plastic bags, a vacuum sealer and a scale. Each package of processed marijuana was labeled with the particular strain of marijuana contained inside.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Barsanti levied a fine of $129,000, which includes standard fines, fees and the resale value of the marijuana, which is estimated at $125,000.

According to Illinois law, Gokhman is eligible for day-for-day sentencing. He receives credit for 189 days served in the Kane County jail, where he has been held since his arrest in lieu of $1 million bail.

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