Utah pot bust is fruitful

A routine traffic stop led to the recovery of more than $2.3 million worth of marijuana last week.

The drugs were being taken from California to a stash house in Indiana where they likely would have awaited distribution to buyers.

But it wasn't to be this time.

On Nov. 17, while conducting patrol along I-70, Interstate 70, a Utah Highway Patrol senior trooper, Jim Hillin, who works with the UHP's commercial vehicle inspection squad, decided to check out the status of a U-Haul moving truck headed east, said UHP spokesman Jeff Nigbur.

Hillin approached the driver after he pulled the truck over near Richfield, and the driver exhibited a few warning signs troopers are trained to look for.

So Hillin got permission from the driver to inspect the truck, Nigbur said.

In the truck's box, he didn't find too much out of the ordinary — mostly some old furniture — but he noticed a false wall, too.

The false wall concealed 360 pounds of packaged marijuana, which would have a street value of about $360,000, Nigbur said.

Hillin interviewed the driver, who agreed to continue to Indianapolis to deliver the drugs.

Contact was made with Indiana authorities, and on Nov. 19, officers made a controlled buy at a so-called stash house, Nigbur said.

With proof that the stash house's occupants were willing to sell marijuana, officers secured a search warrant, executed it and recovered 2,000 pounds of pot.

"All in all, it's a pretty large bust," Nigbur said.

I-70, because of its usefulness as a major artery between east and west, is a favorite highway for drug traffickers, said UHP Sgt. Greg Willmore.

Most of the state's highway drug busts seem to occur along that area, Willmore said.

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E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com