ST. GEORGE – Over 300 pounds of marijuana were seized by the Utah Highway Patrol during a traffic stop Monday morning.
Around 7:30 a.m. a UHP trooper on Interstate 80 stopped a pickup truck at milepost 158 for an improper lane change, according to a news release from the Utah Department of Public Safety.
“After speaking to the driver of the vehicle, the UHP trooper became suspicious of criminal activity,” the news release states. “In his conversation with the driver the trooper was made aware the pickup truck was a rental from a third party and was traveling with a group of four personally owned cars.”
A UHP K-9 was brought in and tracked the possible odor of drugs to the truck, which resulted in the trooper conducting a probable cause search of the vehicle.
What the trooper found was 356 pounds of marijuana in the bed of the truck.
Agents of the State Bureau of Investigation were brought in to conduct an investigation. It was determined the marijuana originated in northern California and had been Minnesota-bound.
The agents estimated the marijuana would sell for $2,500 per pound, for an estimated total of $890,000.
According to Fox 13 News, the driver of the truck, a man identified as 26-year-old Joseph Vasigo, was the sole occupant of the vehicle.
Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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Twitter: @MoriKessler
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.
Well, I’m no expert in packaging mj, but when i see the photo there I would think those would’ve been vacuum sealed bags. And I wonder if someone at UHP took the time to poke a hole in each bag and blow air into it to fluff it up and make it bigger for the photo op here. I also wonder if, during the time that UHP spent fiddling with these bags of mj, 1000s of LBS of meth was trafficked thru utah unmolested by UHP. It all comes down to priorities i guess.
The real criminal activity is that these scumbags can get away with stealing almost a million dollars worth of personal property. The fact that weed is even illegal shows just how f’ed up our society has become. At least these fricking hypocrites can have a good April 20th, but I would like to punch them in the nuts for ruining it for everyone else. They have no right to tell people what they can and can’t do to themselves; when they start doing it to other people it’s a different story. Like stealing. FTP
Unfortunately WE (collectively) gave them the right when we insisted they become the nanny state and wipe our noses for us. In a libertarian society where people are free to choose their own actions AND own the consequences that come from those actions I agree with you completely: none of our business. But when we hand out money for education, money for a sore back, free healthcare for everyone regardless of cause, Medicare pays for Viagra and everything else, etc, etc, etc. Heck yeah the government gets to tell you whether or not you can do drugs and how much. We can’t have it both way. When you pick up one end of the stick you pick up the other. I’ll gladly go back to a full libertarian society where people own their own choices and consequences (where we’re free to over-eat and not exercise but DON’T get free or subsidized healthcare, housing, food, disability, etc), but get ready to be called a hater for it. “You just hate fat people…”
Hey, I’m with you that accountability is an important factor. I just feel like those who are supposed to hold everyone accountable should be the example of what that is; and right now their version of it is to compartmentalize so its never any ones fault until a citizen can produce evidence to at least warrant an investigation. They protect each other and all too often they break the law to do it. I’ll be the first to say they are an important part of the community, but if people are having anxiety (minor heart attacks) when there is a police behind them; there is something wrong with that. “If you’ve done nothing wrong you have nothing to hide” you say, to which I respond that these guys are trained to look for anything they can get you for. And they don’t need much of an excuse to create a problem, like being slightly “not white”.
Photo attached is WAY MORE than 356 pounds.
You guys are some kind of stupid. Hopefully one day they poison this crap and send it back out to take care of idiots like you. Seriously, go live somewhere else.
I love to read the stupid stoner comments For this article, dumber than the guy driving the the pot truck.
“dumber than the guy driving the pot truck”
Except the guy driving the truck is in jail. Who’s “dumber” now?
That’s a large load that looks commercially packaged .
Maybe it was for one of Nevada’s legal pot stores ?
I seriously doubt there is enough ag space there for all the pot they are selling for recreation now .