A 45-year-old man from Honor, Michigan, is being held in the Benzie County Jail on a $500,000 bond after Michigan State Police troopers searched a house on Peckens Road in Homestead Township and reported seizing methamphetamine, heroin, six firearms and a large amount of ammunition, according to the Michigan State Police account reported by 9&10 News on Friday, November 6. Pieter Roeters was arraigned on Thursday, November 5, in the 85th District Court on drug and weapons charges that include a habitual-offender allegation, and his next court appearance is scheduled for November 19.

Source: 9&10 News (WWTV), reporting Michigan State Police, Traverse City Post (Nov. 6, 2026)

A blocked road and a chemical smell started the case

The case did not begin with a long drug investigation, at least on the public record. Troopers from the Michigan State Police Traverse City Post first went to the Peckens Road residence on Monday, November 2, after reports that vehicles were blocking the roadway and that a strong chemical odor was coming from the property, 9&10 News reported. Peckens Road is in Homestead Township, a rural township in Benzie County in Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula, and Honor is the small village nearby that Roeters calls home.

On arrival, troopers found evidence consistent with methamphetamine use, according to the State Police. That evidence was enough for investigators to obtain a search warrant for the house. The Benzie County Sheriff's Office assisted state police during the response and the investigation that followed.

What the search warrant turned up

During the search, state police located and seized methamphetamine and heroin, five long guns, one handgun and a large amount of ammunition, according to the State Police account. Authorities stated that Roeters is a convicted felon and is therefore legally prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition — the fact that sits at the centre of the weapons side of this case. Police have not, in the reporting reviewed, published the weights of the drugs seized or said whether anyone else was in the house at the time.

The charges he was arraigned on

At Thursday's arraignment in the 85th District Court, Roeters was charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, maintaining a drug house, and felony firearm, according to 9&10 News. He was also charged as a habitual offender, an allegation prosecutors use when they say a defendant's prior record should expose him to an enhanced sentence if he is convicted this time. The court set bond at $500,000, cash or surety, and Roeters remains lodged in the Benzie County Jail. All of the charges are allegations; he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court, and no plea was reported in the coverage reviewed.

Why the gun charges carry extra weight in Michigan

Two of the charges are worth explaining, because Michigan treats them more severely than many states. The felony-firearm charge, under Michigan Compiled Laws 750.227b, makes it a separate felony to carry or possess a firearm while committing or attempting to commit another felony — and a first conviction carries a mandatory two-year prison term that cannot be suspended or replaced with probation and must be served consecutively, before the sentence for the underlying felony begins. A second felony-firearm conviction carries a mandatory five years, and a third or later one ten years.

Source: Michigan Compiled Laws 750.227b (felony firearm), summarised by Legal Clarity

The felon-in-possession charge is separate again: under Michigan law a person with a felony conviction is barred from possessing firearms and ammunition until their rights are restored, and possession by a prohibited person is itself a felony carrying up to five years in prison. In plain terms, prosecutors are alleging both that Roeters had guns he was forbidden to have at all, and that he had them while committing the other felonies charged — each allegation will have to be proved separately at trial.

A familiar name in Benzie County files

It is not the first time the same name has appeared in Benzie County drug-and-guns reporting. In September 2022, 9&10 News reported the arrest of a Benzie County man identified as Pieter Roeters, then 41, after a Traverse Narcotics Team search of a house on Ballard Road that began with a stolen-vehicle investigation out of a Frankfort apartment. That 2022 search was reported to have found methamphetamine, morphine, multiple firearms including one stolen handgun, ammunition and illegal knives, and the charges reported then included felon-in-possession counts, receiving and concealing stolen property, drug possession counts and maintaining a drug house, with the same $500,000 bond figure reported at his September 9, 2022 arraignment.

Source: 9&10 News (WWTV) — Benzie County man arrested on felon-in-possession and drug charges (Sept. 9, 2022)

That history is background, not proof in the new case: the 2022 report said further charges were expected and the case was still under investigation at the time, and the reporting reviewed for this story does not state how the 2022 case ended. What the current State Police account does state directly is that Roeters today is a convicted felon barred from possessing firearms — which is why the six guns reported seized on Peckens Road matter so much to the new prosecution.

What happens next

Roeters is scheduled to appear in court again on November 19, with the case at the district-court stage in Benzie County. He remains in the Benzie County Jail unless the $500,000 cash-or-surety bond is posted. For neighbours in Homestead Township, the immediate facts are the ones that started the case — a blocked rural road and a chemical smell strong enough for someone to call it in — and a house that state police say held two illegal drugs and six guns. Anyone reporting a similar smell or activity in the county would ordinarily be directed to the Michigan State Police Traverse City Post or the Benzie County Sheriff's Office.