Wise County finds over 1,000 pounds of drugs worth $1.7M in traffic stop, sheriff says
The Wise County Sheriff’s Office recently confiscated more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana and other drugs worth an estimated $1.7 million during a traffic stop, according to Sheriff Lane Akin.
On Friday, a deputy saw a Toyota Tacoma pulling a U-Haul trailer that was swerving between lanes and onto the shoulder of the road, Akin wrote in a Facebook post.
“The deputy stopped the truck and met with the driver, who was exceedingly nervous,” Akin wrote. “He claimed he was on his way to a funeral in Southeast Texas and went on to say the passenger was his grandmother.”
The woman told the deputy that she and the man were traveling to Tennessee, according to Akin. She said the trailer was full of furniture.
The sheriff’s office brought in a drug-sniffing dog named Benni, who “alerted on the wafting scents,” Akin wrote.
Deputies opened the trailer and found 31 moving boxes sealed with packing tape. According to the sheriff’s office, no furniture was found. Inside the boxes were 840 pounds of vacuum-sealed marijuana, 242 pounds of edible candy bars infused with psilocybin mushrooms (hallucinogens), and 1,100 THC vape cartridges, Akin said. The estimated value of the illicit cargo was tallied at $1.7 million, he said.
The driver and passenger were arrested and face charges of possession of controlled substances. Their bond was set at $70,000.
