Memphis Police Department officers seized more than a ton of marijuana estimated to be worth $2 million in a raid Monday, officials said.
The pot -- along with a .357 handgun, Xanax pills and $170,000 in cash -- was confiscated from a home in North Memphis. Four people were arrested in the raid, although police aren't releasing their names yet.
"So often when you see seizures this size, they're on the interstate passing through. This was found in a home in our city," MPD Director Toney Armstrong said, all of the cash and a portion of the pot spread on two tables in front of him. "It's an extremely bad day for the bad guys."
The situation began Sunday, when OCU officers received a tip about the drugs. police said. Officers began surveillance and identified those responsible, police said. On Monday, police first conducted a traffic stop, detaining a man who had 100 pounds of marijuana.
From there, they moved to a home at 4114 Reenie, where they executed a search warrant. No shots were fired, and the suspects did not resist arrest, Armstrong said.
On Tuesday, police showed the marijuana to reporters at the OCU's Downtown headquarters. The bricks of marijuana -- they actually looked the size of pavinng stones -- filled a small trailer in the parking lot.
While this isn't the largest such seizure in MPD history, it seems to be the biggest in the last half-dozen years. Over that time, police made several seizures of more than 1,000 pounds, but none this large, according to media accounts.
Armstrong conceded that it was still a nice arrest.
"I won't say it's the largest, but it's a substantial amount," he said. "It's a cat-and-mouse game. Today, we won."
Copyright 2013 - The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
