Published: August 06, 2007 11:48 pm         

Terre Haute police find $600,000 worth of marijuana during search of truck at the Knight’s Inn

TERRE HAUTE — City police officers got a big surprise Saturday morning when they discovered almost 600 pounds of marijuana in the bed of a pickup truck.

As of Monday evening, no arrests had been made, but officers are looking for the truck’s registered owner who had a temporary Indiana license plate on the truck.

The Terre Haute Police Department received a call about a suspicious vehicle about 2:15 a.m. in the Knight’s Inn parking lot near the Honey Creek Mall, police said.

Officers found an unoccupied Ford F-150 parked in the lot and did not find anyone around the pickup truck.

Two drug-sniffing dogs, Jasper and Diesel, indicated the presence of narcotics in the truck.

Detectives from the Vigo County Drug Task Force were then called to the scene, said police Chief George Ralston.

Vigo County deputy prosecutor Rob Roberts gave officers permission to search the truck, in which police discovered 15 duffel bags that contained $600,000 worth of marijuana, making the bust one of the largest of its kind ever in Terre Haute.

VCDTF agent Denzil Lewis said, “Obviously we’re delighted that this amount of narcotics will not make it onto the streets in whatever community this was bound for.”

The pot was concealed in the bed of the pickup with an unlocked truck-bed cap. Someone had packed the marijuana into 301 individually wrapped, airtight packages and then coated them with a carpet deodorizer, Lewis said.

The packages or “bricks” of dope ranged from 1 to 3 pounds and the task force took inventory of it on scene and now has possession of the evidence.

Lewis suspected the marijuana was processed at “some type of facility,” heat-sealed and professionally pressed.

Each of the bricks weighs almost exactly the same amount in its 1-, 2- or 3-pound weight category, police said.

Three or four Hispanic males were seen inside the truck by witnesses before police arrived, police said.

“We’d like to get the person or persons that are responsible for the distribution of this amount of marijuana,” Lewis said.

Police believe the marijuana, based on its appearance, was smuggled into the U.S. via Mexico.

“People are always asking what happens to narcotics after the case is adjudicated,” Lewis said. Often, the narcotics are burned in an incinerator at such a high temperature that no smoke is emitted.

In this case, a chemist will analyze the substance to verify that it is marijuana, and it will be destroyed after the case is closed, Lewis said.

“It could be a couple of years, realistically,” he said.

Anyone with information can call CrimeStoppers at (812) 238-STOP or city police at (812) 238-1661.

Laura Followell can be reached at (812) 231-4253 or laura.followell@tribstar.com.