Local News

300 Pound Pot Seizure

La Porte County Police have made another major bust of a possible drug mule on the Indiana Toll Road during what’s been an ongoing crackdown.

 

This time, close to 300 pounds of marijuana were recovered Monday from a vehicle during a traffic stop near Rolling Prairie, police said.

 

The driver, Luis Dorantes Perez, 38, was arrested for level 5 felony dealing in marijuana.

 

About 10 a.m., police said an officer monitoring traffic stopped the eastbound vehicle for speeding and erratic driving.

 

The officer became suspicious when he spotted a blanket covering what appeared to be several bulky items in the back end of the vehicle and detected a strong odor of what he suspected to be marijuana.

 

Police said more than 50 plastic packages of partially vacuum sealed marijuana weighing five pounds apiece were discovered underneath the blanket.  So were over a dozen one pound packages of marijuana.

 

A bottle of fabric softener believed to have been used to try and disguise the smell of the marijuana also turned up during the vehicle search, police said.

 

Perez told the officer the marijuana was “from his work” and he was transporting it from the state of Washington where he resides to New York.

 

Police said receipts on the suspect’s possession indicate he drove a rent a car through states like Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois before entering Indiana.

 

Last month, La Porte County Police arrested three individuals from New York and Pennsylvania with more than two pounds of methamphetamine in their vehicle.

 

Police said they were on the Toll Road driving from Los Angeles to New York City when pulled over for speeding and tailgating.

 

La Porte County Police Capt. Derek Allen said there are no plans to stop a fruitful several year effort to catch drivers transporting large amounts of drugs.

 

Allen said the amount of marijuana seized weighed 294 pounds, exceeding any amount of the drug confiscated at one time by his department at least in recent memory.

 

“This is a large load,” he said.

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