TOOELE COUNTY
SUV yields pot; 2 men arrested
TOOELE - The Utah Highway Patrol is investigating two men believed to have
been part of an organization smuggling marijuana from California to
Minnesota.
UHP troopers confiscated 95 pounds of marijuana from a sport-utility vehicle
Tuesday. They believe the marijuana was picked up in Yuba City, Calif., and
was destined for the Twin Cities, Lt. Fred Swain said.
About 10:30 a.m., a UHP trooper pulled over the SUV on east I-80 near Tooele
to check out obstructions he believed were hanging on the windshield.
"As he's approaching the driver's window, he can smell strong detergent
soap, which is common to disguise the smell" of drugs, Swain said.
Neither the driver nor the passenger was a registered owner of the SUV. One
man said the registered owner was his girlfriend. When the trooper asked
about her, the man replied he did not know how to contact her, Swain said.
The men gave the UHP consent to search the SUV. Backup troopers and a
drug-sniffing dog found the marijuana. Half of it was in plastic bags in the
cargo area; the other half was inside a large speaker, Swain said.
"Normally, if you have a speaker box there's going to be wires going to the
box to provide sound to the speakers. It wasn't wired at all, so it's
obvious it's a box with lids on it to smuggle drugs," Swain said.
The UHP does not believe the find is a random, isolated incident of drug
smuggling.
"We believe these individuals are members of organized crime, probably
gang-related," Swain said.
One man is from Minneapolis, and the other man is from Cass Lake, Minn. The
SUV had California plates. The men remain in jail while the incident is
investigated.
"Through our investigation, we believe both these subjects from Minnesota
went out (to California) in a different vehicle. They picked this vehicle up
and they were going back," Swain said.
