A 45-year-old Macomb Township man is out on a $100,000 bond after investigators say a search of two Macomb County homes turned up ten firearms, hundreds of pills and nearly $16,000 in cash. Mark Cholagh was taken into custody after officers located and seized drugs, weapons, paraphernalia, packaging materials and cash, according to investigators, and he now faces a stack of felony drug and weapons charges that could carry decades behind bars.
According to ClickOnDetroit, the search warrant was carried out at a Shelby Township home on September 17. Macomb County Sheriff's Office detectives, working alongside Warren Police Department detectives, executed the warrant at a home in the 5000 block of Paladin Drive in Shelby Township. Separately, FOX 2 Detroit reported that a second warrant was executed at a home in the 22000 block of Shane Drive in Macomb Township, showing the operation spanned two separate residential properties rather than a single address.
The searches recovered hundreds of oxycodone and amphetamine pills, three rifles, seven handguns, multiple magazines and rounds of ammunition, drug paraphernalia and packaging materials, and nearly $16,000 in cash, per the same ClickOnDetroit account. FOX 2 Detroit reported the searches were conducted by the Sheriff's Enforcement Team, or SET, a joint task force pairing Macomb County Sheriff's Office detectives with Warren Police Department detectives, and put the recovered currency at $15,898.
Charges Carry Decades of Potential Prison Time
Cholagh, who lives in Macomb Township, was charged with delivery/manufacture of a controlled substance involving cocaine, heroin or another narcotic weighing 50 to 449 grams — a 20-year felony under the report's account. He also faces a charge of delivery/manufacture of a schedule 1, 2 or 3 controlled substance except marijuana and cocaine, a 7-year felony, along with a felony firearm charge.
Under Michigan Compiled Laws Section 333.7401(2)(a)(iii), delivery or manufacture of 50 to 449 grams of a schedule 1 or 2 controlled substance is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the Michigan Legislature. The felony firearm count adds its own mandatory weight: under Michigan Compiled Laws Section 750.227b, possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony carries a mandatory minimum two-year prison sentence that must be served consecutively to, and before, any sentence for the underlying felony, with no eligibility for probation or parole during those two years.
Following his arrest, Cholagh was formally arraigned in 41A District Court in Shelby Township, according to FOX 2 Detroit's report. He was assigned a $100,000 cash or surety bond, paid it, and was released from custody. He is due back in court for a probable cause conference at 1 p.m. on October 5.
Part of a Broader Pattern of SET Raids
The Sheriff's Enforcement Team has a documented history of executing similar multi-location raids across Metro Detroit. In June, SET executed search warrants in Detroit that recovered roughly 420 grams of cocaine, five firearms and over $2,200 in cash, leading to multiple felony charges against a Detroit resident, as reported by CBS News Detroit. And last November, the task force executed warrants across three Shelby Township homes and a business, seizing 1,500 pounds of marijuana, five firearms and $380,000 in cash, a case Hoodline covered in its report on the 1,500-pound marijuana haul.
The Cholagh case also arrives amid a notable public health shift in the county. Macomb County Community Mental Health officials reported this month that the county saw a 49% drop in fatal drug overdoses over a three-year period, crediting grant-funded naloxone distribution and a 24/7 crisis engagement center, according to ClickOnDetroit. Statewide, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced in June that Michigan's overdose death rate fell 47% between 2021 and projected 2025 figures, from 30.8 deaths per 100,000 residents to a projected 16.4 per 100,000. Even so, an August update from the University of Michigan's Poverty Solutions and the Overdose Prevention Engagement Network identified the Wayne-Macomb-St. Clair tri-county cluster as a continuing regional hotspot for elevated rates of fatal opioid overdoses and emergency room visits.
Cholagh has not been convicted of any crime, and the charges against him remain allegations as his case moves through 41A District Court. His probable cause conference next month will be the next step in determining how the case proceeds.
