(La Porte County, IN) - A police chase ending with a crash Sunday night in the Michigan City area led to the seizure of dispensary marijuana purchased outside New Buffalo.

 

Cody Withrow, 31, of Indianapolis is charged in La Porte Superior Court 4 with resisting law enforcement and possession of marijuana, both Level 6 felonies along with reckless driving, a Class C misdemeanor.

 

According to La Porte County Police, an officer about 7:30 p.m. began following a 2016 Toyota Camry traveling at a high rate of speed and making erratic, unsafe lane movements in the area of U.S. 421 and County Road 400 North.

 

Police said the officer tried to initiate a traffic stop, but the driver later identified as Withrow merged into the eastbound lanes of nearby Interstate 94.  He immediately veered off the interstate and returned to U.S. 421 before taking another ramp to head westbound on the interstate, police said.

 

Police said Withrow with the officer still in pursuit returned again to U.S. 421 and went back for a second time to the eastbound lanes of the interstate before veering onto the ramp to head northbound on U.S. 421.

 

He was still on the ramp when he rear-ended a pick-up truck.

 

Police said he drove around the truck but his vehicle with heavy front end damage came to a stop a short time later and he was taken into custody at gunpoint.

 

Two large bags containing the name of a dispensary in Michigan along U.S. 12 in New Buffalo Township were recovered from the trunk of Withrow’s vehicle.  Police said the bags contained various marijuana products still in their original packaging valued at more than $1,100.

 

Marijuana remains illegal in Indiana.  Withrow was being held in the La Porte County Jail on $755 bond.