(La Porte County, IN) - A Chicago area man has been accused of having more than 1,000 vape cartridges containing the active ingredient of marijuana upon being stopped on Wednesday by police for a traffic violation in La Porte County.
Mark Crowley, 28, has been charged in La Porte Superior Court 1 with Dealing in a Schedule I, II, or III Substance as a Level 2 felony.
According to court documents, La Porte County Sheriff’s Deputy Wade Wallace stopped the westbound Crowley for improperly switching lanes and speeding on Interstate 94 near the 40-mile marker outside Michigan City.
Crowley told the officer he just left Michigan after visiting a friend overnight, and according to authorities, the officer’s suspicions were raised because Crowley seemed to be uncomfortable about providing more detail about his trip to Michigan and claiming not to know the name of the community he went to in the state. He did say it was about a two-hour drive from his home in the western suburb of Aurora.
Crowley reportedly began to sweat and breathe heavily, his hands visibly shaking when the officer called for a K-9 dog to come to the scene. The dog, while conducting an air sniff, was alerted to the presence of drugs in the vehicle. Two large cardboard boxes each containing 600 THC vapes packaged in smaller boxes were allegedly discovered in the trunk.
According to authorities, it appears Crowley was on his way home to sell the cartridges, though, because the amount greatly exceeds what any single individual could personally consume, what with each cartridge being able to last an average user for weeks.
As a result, Crowley could face anywhere from a 10 to 30-year sentence.
No light was shed on whether any of the THC vapes were obtained at any of the marijuana dispensaries in Michigan.
Last year, a man and woman from Wisconsin were passing through La Porte County before being arrested during a traffic stop for allegedly having a large amount of marijuana products in their vehicle. The driver revealed the dispensary products were obtained in Buchanan, one of the cities where the retail sale of marijuana is legal in the state.
