January 30, 2008
Gary Davidson
Public Information Officer

TRAFFIC STOP YIELDS 50 POUNDS OF MARIJUANA AND TWO ARRESTS 

It started Tuesday afternoon with some minor traffic infractions and a couple of very nervous men. By the time officers finished their investigation into a pickup truck pulled over along S.R. 472 near Orange City, two North Carolina men were under arrest for transporting approximately 50 pounds of marijuana. 

After observing several traffic infractions, Volusia County Sheriff’s deputy Joel Hernandez stopped a silver Dodge pickup truck at around 3:20 p.m. Tuesday. The infractions earned the driver, 44-year-old Antonio Lopez Garcia, a citation for failing to signal a lane change. But it was the obvious nervousness of Garcia and his passenger that caused deputy Hernandez to investigate further. A Sheriff’s Office K-9 that was called to the scene confirmed the deputy’s suspicion when the drug-sniffing dog alerted on the dirt, hay and mulch packed into the bed of the truck. Just beneath the surface were two plastic bags filled with approximately 50 pounds of marijuana stuffed into numerous smaller bags for distribution. Agents with the West Volusia Narcotics Task Force also were called in to assist in the investigation. 

Garcia was charged with trafficking in marijuana and booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach without bond. The passenger, who gave three different names and admitted to being in the country illegally, was booked into the jail as John Doe on charges of trafficking in marijuana and resisting an officer without violence. He also was being held without bond. The West Volusia Narcotics Task Force is a multi-agency force of narcotics agents from the Sheriff’s Office and DeLand Police Department that shares resources and crosses jurisdictional boundaries to combat street-level drug and vice crimes.