Trooper Finds Marijuana Bricks On I-435 Semi 2 Taken Into Custody

TheKansasCityChannel.com ^ | May 2, 2005 | unknown

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

OLATHE, Kan. -- A routine traffic stop on I-435 turned into a major drug bust Monday morning, KMBC's Dan Weinbaum reported.

At about 6 a.m., a Kansas state trooper pulled over an 18-wheeler with a broken headlight near Highway 69.

After talking with the semi driver, the trooper became suspicious and asked to search the truck's load. The trooper found a large stash of marijuana bricks, officials said.

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

I was not able to find a version of the story with more information. I just heard on the radio that the two men arrested had hispanic names. My husband threw out the question of their nationality when we were watching the story on the news last night.

Olathe, Kansas is not far from Kanasas City.

[headsonpikes]

Bricks?

Folks are still smoking Mexican brick???

How declasse! ;^)

[Semper Paratus]

"Hey man you smell smoke? Yea, hey the truck's on fire man!"

[clearsight]

Thank God for the broken headlight. There is also something broken about the so called "War on Drugs?" Something tells me that there is no war on drugs, but that the war on drugs is simply a distraction from our real problem. Is Uncle Sam really addicted to Mary Jane, Heroin, Morphine, Crack and a plethora of drugs all at once ???? Something is smells fishy here.........go tell.......explains why they do not like the minute men.........

[floydibanezer]

I'd like to know why the cop was suspicious and if the truck driver consented to the search. I don't know why a broken headlight would be a characteristic of a drug trafficker. I wouldn't be surprised if the driver's nationality was the cop's reason for suspicion.

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

"The amount of marijuana was not released, but KMBC reported that it was large enough it took a forklift to remove it from the truck."

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

Here's another version of the same story...

http://www.kctv5.com/Global/story.asp?S=3288089&nav=1PubZLVp

"It all started with a broken headlight.

That and suspicious behavior prompted a trooper to pull over a tractor trailer in Johnson County."

[Bones75]

"The amount of marijuana was not released, but KMBC reported that it was large enough it took a forklift to remove it from the truck."

Wow, that takes another .0000000001 percent of the total supply off the streets!

Way to go drug warriors! I feel much safer.

I can picture how this went down... bill club hidden behind his back.. "SMASH".. "Hey, you know you've got a headlight out here, doper"

[TKDietz]

They seize probably tens of thousands of pounds of it off of the highway going through my county every year. I had court a couple of days ago and the officer who was supposed to be there as a prosecution witness in one of my cases was late because he was handling a seizure of around 700 pounds. The prosecutor looked at one of the other troopers and asked where this other fellow was and the officer said "he had a seizure." The prosecutor says, "oh my gosh is he alright." The trooper says, "no, a pot seizure."

We see tons and tons of this stuff coming through. And most of the time when police are in court on little possession cases what they are carrying in their little evidence bags is maybe a pipe and a roach and a little bit of seedy compressed Mexican pot. The expensive indoor grown stuff is available but most people don't want to or can't afford to spend that kind of money on pot. Law enforcement generally estimates that better than 90% of the pot consumed in the U.S. is Mexican, and the Mexican pot is almost always compressed and bundled up to make hiding it, smuggling it, and transporting it easier. I had a client once describing the process of compressing it to me which he had seen done several times. These guys had made a press out of car jacks and a welded metal box. They'd press piles and piles and piles of pot with it to make it fit in a smaller area.

[rabidralph]

I feel safer too.

[headsonpikes]

I had a client once describing the process of compressing it to me which he had seen done several times. These guys had made a press out of car jacks and a welded metal box. They'd press piles and piles and piles of pot with it to make it fit in a smaller area.

Fascinating!

I do not exaggerate when I say that you are consistently the most informative of all posters on these drug threads. Your accounts of life in court remind me of Orwell's reminiscences in 'Down and out in Paris and London'.

;^)

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

Are you a defense attorney?

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

...and they say drugs don't affect your judgement...

</ sarcasm

[TKDietz]

"Are you a defense attorney?"

Yes.

[TKDietz]

Thanks you.

[TKDietz]

"Thanks you?" I meant thank you. I just wasn't made to type.

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

Defending mostly drug charges?

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

Yep. If Mexicans are taking the low paying jobs Americans won't perform, but yet they have money to send back home to Mexico, how does that work. Hmmm...

[TKDietz]

I'm a public defender in a small county so I handle every kind of case. I know we get more drug cases than any other type of case but I'm not sure that it would be accurate to say that most of our cases are drug cases. Could be. We have so many cases it's hard to keep track of them all.

[TKDietz]

They pack a bunch of people in one apartment and eat lots of beans and rice. Then they buy one junky old car for several people to use and don't get insurance on it since hardly any of them have drivers licenses anyway. What little they can send home goes a long way where people are doing good to earn $1.50 an hour.

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

I have a co-worker at my p.t. job (I work 2 jobs), who works 2 jobs. Her full time job is as a parole officer in the greater K.C. metro area, which includes several counties. She said 99% of her cases are drug offenses.

[TKDietz]

I honestly don't know what the percentages are here. I do know that lots of times when I look at the docket almost all of the cases are drug cases. It's not 99%, but it could be that most of the cases are drug cases. The public defender office gets almost all of these cases because these people don't tend to have any money. We even get most all of the delivery and manufacturing cases. People seem to have this stereotype in their heads about drug dealers and meth cooks making all of this money hand over fist. The real truth is that most of these people are miserable drug addicts who don't have a pot to pee in. And these big marijuana cases where hundreds pounds or more are pulled off the highway on a vehicle stop, we get almost all of those too. These people are drug mules. They don't own the drugs and they generally don't have any money either. We probably get more than 80% of all of the various criminal cases going through the county and a higher percentage of the drug cases.

[Know your rights]

Wow, that takes another .0000000001 percent of the total supply off the streets!

Way to go drug warriors! I feel much safer.

It's like the Prohibition-era photo ops of feds smashing barrels. Lotta good that did ....

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

If I remember correctly, my moonlighting-Parole-Officer co-worker also told me that all of her "clients" have been abused. Those with charges of prostition were sexually abused. I can double check that when I see her tonight. To correct myself, 99% of her cases are drug crimes or drug related crimes. And I believe she may have a choice as to what types of cases she does not work with. She has said she will not work with molesters or rapists.

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

A man was jogging down the beach after a major storm had just come through the area. He was dismayed by the huge number of starfish that the storm had washed up on the beach. He thought that there was nothing he could do because of the immense numbers. As he continued down the beach he saw an old man throw something into the water. As he got closer, he saw the old man walk a little farther down the beach, bend over, pick up a starfish and throw it back into the water. As the jogger approached, the old man stopped again, bent over, picked up another starfish and was about to throw it into the water. The jogger stopped and asked "Why are you doing that? There are thousands of starfish on the beach. You can't possibly make a difference." The old man looked at the starfish, threw it back into the water, then replied, "I made a difference to that one, didn't I?"

[Rebelbase]

Revisionist nursery rhymes: The big bad wolf huffed and he puffed, then puffed some more at the pig's house made with marijuana bricks.

[Know your rights]

And whose lives are saved when a few bales of marijuana are seized?

[Bones75]

"And whose lives are saved when a few bales of marijuana are seized?"

Nobody's