A 74 year old Dowelltown man who obtained a package through the mail at the Liberty Post Office last August containing fourteen pounds of pot appeared in DeKalb County Criminal Court Monday.
John Harris of Cathcart Road Dowelltown, charged with possession of a schedule VI drug, received judicial diversion probation for a period of two years and was fined $2,000. His probation will be unsupervised. Judge David Patterson presided.
According to Sheriff Patrick Ray, the investigation was conducted by Detectives of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and United States Postal Service Inspectors.
In a prepared statement at the time of Harris’ arrest, Sheriff Ray said “Sheriff’s Department Drug Detective Jeremy Taylor went to the Liberty Post Office on Wednesday, August 27, 2014 and met with an Inspector from the US Postal Service. Based upon US Postal Service profiles and information that was obtained by a US Postal Service Inspector about a sealed package that had been delivered to the Liberty Post Office, Detective Taylor summoned Smithville Police Department K-9 Officer James Cornelius and his K-9 Leo to the scene. Leo alerted to Officer Cornelius that an illegal substance was in the sealed targeted package”.
“After the alert from the K-9 that an illegal substance was present in the package, Officers waited for someone to come and pick up the target package from the post office. After a short wait, Harris came and picked up the package. Officers then witnessed Harris attempt to take the package and place it in his personal vehicle. Officer’s then raided Harris and seized the targeted package. Harris gave permission for Officers to look inside of the package and found were approximately 14 pounds of Marijuana in 18 individual bags”.
According to Sheriff Ray, “this marijuana is not the kind we regularly see here. These bags of marijuana were packaged in Ziploc bags and then were vacuumed packed. This was to hide the distinct smell that marijuana gives off. The bags weighed anywhere from 10 ounces to just over a pound. Written on each of the bags were different strains of marijuana. Purple Diesel, Blue Dream and Buddha Cheese were just a few of the strains listed. Street value for the marijuana is anywhere from $375 to $454 an ounce or $5,712.00 to $7,264 a pound.”
Detective Taylor seized cash from Harris and also his 2009 Dodge Avenger car.
(Picture- Smithville Police K-9 Officer James Cornelius, K-9 Leo, Detective Jeremy Taylor, Sheriff Patrick Ray)
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