An elderly California couple were stopped this week in the middle of their journey to deliver very special packages of holiday joy to friends and relatives in Vermont.
83-year-old Patrick Jiron and his wife Barbara were pulled over in York County Nebraska for failing to signal for a turn on Interstate-80.
Deputies quickly noticed a distinctive wafting out of their Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and after conducting a search, found 60 pounds of weed having an estimated street value of $300,000.
The couple claimed that they were not planning on selling the ganja but rather were going to give it away as Christmas presents.
There’s no gift like pot for the holidays? Senior citizens headed to VT busted with 60 lbs of pot for Christmas, cops say. https://t.co/23km26CYQf #btv #vt @bfp_news http://pic.twitter.com/rzah2hDkx3
— Adam Silverman (@Wej12) December 23, 2017
Via the Burlington Free Press “Cops: Senior citizens headed to VT had 60 lbs. of pot for Christmas”:
There’s no present like pot for the holidays?
Nebraska police say that’s what a pair of seniors bound for Vermont told them they planned to do with more than 60 pounds of marijuana found in their car during a traffic stop earlier this week.
Patrick Jiron, 83, and his wife, Barbara, 70, of Clearlake Oaks, California, were apprehended following a traffic stop earlier this week on Interstate 80 in York, Nebraska, according to the York County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputies said they spotted the Jirons’ Toyota Tacoma pickup truck Tuesday swerving and failing to use a turn signal along the stretch of rural interstate highway in eastern Nebraska. Officers “detected the odor of raw marijuana coming from the vehicle,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement Friday provided to the Burlington Free Press.
Patrick Jiron, who was driving, agreed to a search of the truck, and deputies discovered the pot under a topper in the back of the pickup, police said. The marijuana was packaged in more than 25 clear plastic bags and at least one empty bulk-sized container of cheese puffs, according to a photo the sheriff’s department released.
The drugs had a street value in excess of $300,000, police said.
Patrick and Barbara Jiron told deputies they were headed to Vermont and also Boston “to distribute the marijuana to family and friends as Christmas gifts.”
The Jirons received citations on suspicion of possessing marijuana with the intent to deliver. Patrick Jiron was jailed, posted bond and was released, according to the local Nebraska newspaper, the York News Times. Barbara Jiron was not jailed.
The New York Times reported that the couple were cited for:
Charges of possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver and of lacking a drug tax stamp.
A drug tax stamp is a stamp displayed on a container used to hold drugs that certifies the dealer in possession of them has paid the drug tax, which Nebraska law requires dealers to pay “immediately upon acquisition or possession of marijuana or controlled substances,” according to the Nebraska Department of Revenue.
The tax on marijuana is $10 per ounce or per portion of an ounce, which means the tax bill for the Jirons would add up to roughly $9,600.
Pot has been legalized in both Massachusetts and California although not Vermont and it isn’t clear as to whether the couple was able to continue on their journey without their gifts.
There surely will be lots of people who may be disappointed that they aren’t going to find a bag of the buds under their Christmas tree.
via Downtrend.com
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