Photo via Missouri Highway Patrol

THC vape cartridges may be smaller, more inconspicuous, and easier to transport than traditional bud, but that doesn’t mean that the easily-concealed carts can trick man’s best friend.

According to KSHB News, a police dog in Missouri sniffed out over 20,000 black market THC vape cartridges worth more than $1 million on the street during a routine traffic stop this week. Cops said that they pulled over an SUV on I-70 after the vehicle was observed crossing over a lane divider line. After performing an initial roadside stop protocol, a drug dog was brought out of the cop car to walk around the truck, and immediately alerted officers to the presence of drugs.

Using the barking dog as probable cause, cops searched the vehicle and turned up more than 20 large unmarked boxes packed full of pre-filled vape cartridges with labels boasting 85%-90% THC content. 

The vehicle originated in North Carolina, but it is not yet clear if the men were intending to deliver the cartridges to Missouri, or if they were simply driving through on their way to another state. 

In the face of the still-evolving vape illness crisis, police departments across the country have been more active in pursuing manufacturers and distributors of cannabis vape cartridges over the past few months. On a whole, even the most conservative statistics estimate that cops have confiscated more than half a million black market cartridges in the past two years alone.

Back in Missouri, the two men driving the cartridge-packed SUV were both arrested and charged with felony delivery of a controlled substance. 

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