Thread: Holy smokes! Minn. troopers bust truckers with ton of pot

ST. PAUL (AP) - Two men hauling more than 40,000 pounds of Jawbreaker candies had freight far sweeter to the Minnesota State Patrol: nearly a ton-and-a-half of marijuana.

On Wednesday, authorities announced they busted the duo a day earlier after stopping a slow-moving semi along a suburban highway outside of St. Paul. They believe the truck was headed to Minnesota from Texas.

Kent Bailey, acting special agent in charge of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Drug Enforcement Administration, estimated the 2,750 pounds of pot would sell for more than $3 million given the $1,200-a-pound street value of Mexican marijuana.

"I'll sleep safely tonight knowing we put a big dent on preventing any of the marijuana hitting the streets," he said.

Bailey said the seizure is more than double that of any other single incident from his five years at the head of the local DEA branch. Capt. Jay Swanson, a 27 1/2 year veteran of the Minnesota State Patrol, wasn't aware of a traffic stop in the state yielding a bigger cache in his tenure.

The driver's speed _ he was going 15 mph below the limit _ and his frequent brushes with the right shoulder caught a state trooper's attention. When reviewing the truck's logbook and other papers, the trooper noticed inconsistencies that led him to believe the papers were forged.

A search using a drug-sniffing dog turned up the massive marijuana load. The 41 boxes of marijuana were surrounded by 28 pallets of boxes containing the hard candy.

Authorities say one of the men admitted to being in the country illegally and the other said he was a legal alien. Bailey said the men, both of whom are Hispanic, may have given false names so authorities couldn't immediately determine if they had outstanding warrants or criminal pasts.

Their identities weren't publicly released, but federal charges were expected as soon as Wednesday.

"We're thrilled to take this amount of dope off the streets of Minnesota," said Swanson said. "But it's somewhat dismaying to be faced with an indication of what the demand is."

Bailey said the marijuana will eventually be incinerated and the candy will probably be destroyed as well.

"I initially thought about how we could give that away to kids forever and ever. But I couldn't take the risk," he said. "Even though they were in cellophane and they're boxed, that package has been sitting somewhere for a month with a ton and a half of marijuana next to it."

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=167155&section=news

Big dent for the "potheads." I also just read tonight where they made the biggest bust of pot in Ohio growing in a state wildlife area. Over 10,000 plants were destroyed.

wow thats a ton of weed... the cops should burn it