Tien Van Pham Pleads Not Guilty in Shakopee Southbridge Marijuana Case

A Shakopee man accused of using his Southbridge home to grow marijuana has pleaded not guilty to an amended criminal charge in Scott County Court.

Tien Van Pham, 46, pleaded not guilty in late January to one count of felony first-degree sale of 50 kilos or more of marijuana near a city park.

Pham was initially charged with third-degree felony possession of 10 kilos or more of marijuana. Details from the perspective of law enforcement and attorneys are listed in a Scott County criminal complaint.

Investigators believe Pham, on one or more occasions in a 90-day period, aided and abbetted the sale of one or more mixtures of a total weight of 50 kilos or more of marijuana in a park zone.

He was arrested Nov. 29 at a home on the 7200 block of Berkshire Lane when officers arrived with a search warrant. Officers say they found 1,600 live marijuana plants, dried marijuana plants and equipment to grow marijuana on each level of the home and in the attached garage. The home is less than a block from Hamlet Park.

Agents from the Southwest Metro Drug Task Force placed a street value of $2.5 million on the 1,600 live plants.

Mark Williams, Carver County sheriff's sergeant and head of the task force, said the value of the marijuana produced at wholesale would have been somewhere between $1 million to $1.5 million. 

Pham remains in Scott County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail. A jury trial is set for April 17.

Officers from the Shakopee Police Department, Carver County Sheriff’s Office and Scott County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation.