A Jamaican national who was in the United States on a work visa was arrested for trafficking a controlled substance when he was discovered with over 715 pounds of marijuana and over 26,500 marijuana-infused gummies during a traffic stop in Mississippi.
According to WLOX 13, Jermaine Barrett was arrested by the Pontotoc County Sheriff’s Department on Feb. 24 after the police officers found a large amount of drugs in his vehicle. Officers from the Criminal Investigation Division Narcotics Unit conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle near Sherman in Pontotoc County. Authorities stated that the street value of the marijuana and gummies impounded is more than two million dollars.
Yardhype reported that the 31-year-old man was living in Nevada and was reportedly transporting the drugs from California to North Carolina when he was caught. No other details have been released from the sheriff’s department at this time.
This is not the first time a large volume of drugs was confiscated in Pontotoc County during a routine traffic stop.
The Vicksburg Daily News reported in December 2024 that the sheriff’s department had seized about 600 pounds of illegal narcotics when they stopped a van traveling on the I-22 Sunday, Dec. 21. The estimated street value of the drugs discovered was one million dollars. The police officers found the drugs when they stopped the van for a traffic violation.
Officers arrested the driver, 39-year-old Almas Bekzhanov of Kazakhstan. Sheriff Leo Mask stated that he was in the country illegally and had been charged with trafficking of a controlled substance. After Bekzhanov was detained by police officers, the department notified the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding the suspect’s immigration status.
Pontotoc Progress reported that when the officer stopped Bekzhanov, he detected the odor of marijuana, which led to a search of the vehicle. This is when more than 200 bags of ball-rolled marijuana and 10 jars of waxed marijuana, as well as a number of boxes of already-rolled marijuana cigarettes, were discovered. Pontotoc County Sheriff Leo Mask said the suspect was traveling from California to the Carolinas.
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