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A routine traffic stop in Orlando, Florida led to a massive black market cannabis seizure after a dog-assisted search uncovered 624 pounds of vacuum sealed marijuana. Cps say the stash could be worth up to $5.4 million on the street.
According to the Miami Herald, the incident started after Florida Highway Patrol officers say they watched a large U-Haul truck switch lanes erratically and roll over a cement curb. After flashing their lights and questioning the truck driver and passenger, the officers pulled Piet, a deputized canine cop, out of their vehicle and had him circle the truck to smell for contraband.
Almost immediately, Piet signaled that he had smelled narcotics, prompting the officers on scene to pop open the back of the U-Haul. Inside, the cops discovered a wall of cardboard boxes, each packed with 5-6 pounds of vacuum-sealed bud.
FHP K-9 Piet alerted to 624 pounds of marijuana being smuggled in the back of a U-Haul truck, in Orlando, after a trooper conducted a traffic stop. Both the driver and passenger were arrested on Tuesday night. The street value is over 5.6 million dollars. Thanks to #FHP K-9. pic.twitter.com/r4iw7vW7Un
— FHP Orlando (@FHPOrlando) September 19, 2019
As cannabis legalization spreads further across the US every month, police departments in transitioning states have begun to retire police dogs who have been trained to smell cannabis. Since the K-9 cops give off the same barking signal when they smell weed as when they do cocaine, heroin and other drugs, police departments in legal weed states have already had dog-induced searches overturned and had to train a new litter of pups to ignore the smell of pot.
In Orlando, the driver and passenger in the pot-packed U-Haul, 34-year-old Huong Le and 36-year-old Tam Dinh, were both arrested on charges of possession and transportation of narcotics. It is not exactly clear where the two men were going with their vacuum sealed haul, but they might have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling cops and their pesky pooch.
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