WISE COUNTY, Texas — A K-9 unit in Wise County made a drug bust along Highway 287 worth $1.7 million, according to Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin.
In a Facebook post, Akin said a patrolling deputy observed a white Tacoma pulling a U-Haul van trailer, which was swerving from lane to lane and driving on the rumble strips. The deputy stopped the truck and the driver acted "exceedingly nervous," according to Akin.
While on the side of the road, 31-year-old driver Suradit Paketthong of Temehula, California, explained he and his 66-year-old grandmother, Ares Boonhome, also of Temehula, California, were headed to a funeral in Southeast Texas.
But Akin said the deputy got a completely different story from Boonhome, who gave a different explanation about how they are related to each other.
"The grandmother said now that she's his mother and that they were on their way to Tennessee, and they were moving in, the stuff that was in the trailer was just some furniture that they were going to deliver," Akin told WFAA.
K-9 Benni and his handler were only minutes away from the traffic stop and did a quick pass on the trailer. K-9 Benni alerted the trailer, and the deputies opened the trailer to find 31 moving boxes sealed with packing tape. There was no furniture found in the trailer.
Instead, deputies found 840 pounds of vacuum sealed marijuana, 242 pounds of edible candy bars infused with Psilocybin Mushrooms, and 1,100 (2.5 lbs.) THC vape cartridges, Akins said.
According to law enforcement, the illicit cargo was tallied to be worth $1.7 million. Both the driver and the passenger were arrested on several charges of Possession of Controlled Substances. Their bonds were set at $70,000 each, Akins said.
Akin told WFAA that he has almost 50 years of law enforcement experience and said nothing bothers him more than street drugs getting into the hands of young people.
"We've got two second-degree felonies on each one of them and one state jail felony," Akin said. "Those drugs will be tested at a drug lab, state drug lab. Then once those drugs are tested, we'll get a court order to either hang on to them until the trial comes along or will destroy them with a certain amount to take to court."
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