Public Servant caught running 184 lbs of dope!

[TheeBadOne]

Pubic Servant caught running 184 lbs of dope!

Pitt. fireman is latest DPS pot arrestee

A Pittsburgh firefighter was arrested Thursday by state police, charged with transporting 184 pounds of marijuana.
Fletcher Jones, 32, was stopped by an officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety just after midnight on Interstate 40 approximately seven miles east of Flagstaff for an improper lane change, according to information released by an official at the DPS Flagstaff office.

DPS Det. Jay Atwater said that the officer approached the rented 2003 Buick LeSabre being driven by Jones and began to ask Jones questions. The answers to those questions led the officer to ask Jones if he could search the vehicle, Atwater said.

During the search, the officer discovered 184 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of the car. The marijuana was inside duffel bags.

After his arrest, Atwater said Jones told officers that he was traveling from Tucson to Pittsburgh.

"In the vehicle, the officer noticed a complete set of fireman's turnout gear," Atwater said. "It seems Mr. Jones is a Pittsburgh fireman."

A deputy fire chief for the Pittsburgh Fire Bureau confirmed a Fletcher Jones, same age, became a firefighter in 1993, according to reports received by a reporter with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The deputy fire chief acknowledged awareness of the Flagstaff arrest.

Jones told officers he picked up the marijuana from a third party, who had secured the marijuana from a Mexican organization in Tucson, Atwater said.

"He was a mule," Atwater said.

Jones was booked into the Coconino County Jail on possession of marijuana for sale and transportation of marijuana for sale.

According to information from the Metro anti-drug task force in Flagstaff, marijuana sells for approximately $650 to $700 a pound in northern Arizona. DPS information has marijuana going for $400 to $500 a pound in source cities such as Tucson or Phoenix.

But as the marijuana moves farther east, its price increases -- up to $1,400 to $1,500 a pound on the East Coast -- according to DPS information. The reason for the increase centers on transportation costs and increased exposure to risk of getting caught.

So far this week, five people have been arrested and 871 pounds of marijuana worth approximately $1.22 million on the East Coast has been seized in three separate drug busts by DPS officers in Flagstaff.

DPS officials attribute the increase in marijuana seizures this week to the harvest season for marijuana. October is the height of the season, which begins in September and runs through March.

http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=75100
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Just when I thought nothing suprised me anymore! I wonder if this fellow will get union respresentation? Does he deserve union representation?

 

[Augustwest]

If I'uz drivin' around with that much reefer in the trunk, I'd be goldurn sure I obeyed all the traffic laws...

 

[vrwc]

ha inproper lane change bull crap, as an ex leo i can tell you that is a line of crap, rental car+midnight+Interstate+bored trooper=searches
which i think is wrong, thats one of the reasons i am no longer a leo i dont like being a part of the police state (disclamer i am not anti-leo, about 85% of leo's are good people, its just the police state nannys are the ones who want to be at a desk making policy, instead of behind the wheel serving the community

 

[TheeBadOne]

Originally posted by vrwc

ha inproper lane change bull crap, as an ex leo i can tell you that is a line of crap, rental car+midnight+Interstate+bored trooper=searches
which i think is wrong, thats one of the reasons i am no longer a leo i dont like being a part of the police state (disclamer i am not anti-leo, about 85% of leo's are good people, its just the police state nannys are the ones who want to be at a desk making policy, instead of behind the wheel serving the community

"as an ex leo i can tell you that is a line of crap" Soooo, you have a cyrstal ball? Or are you saying that as an X-leo you have special powers or senses? Do you have any specific information that this specific stop was a "pretext" stop? If not, that is bias showing though.

 

[Pilgrim]

Sounds like profiling to me.

Pilgrim

 

[vrwc]

no no crystal ball, just an opinion , i have no information other than what was reported, this guy was most likely doing things to attract attention, you seem to be offended by something that i wrote, so sorry for whatever, I was just posting my opinion,

 

[Fed168]

Sounds like a trooper with a good nose. Cheers to him.

 

[El Tejon]

Let me guess: he found it!

 

[Brian Dale]

the officer approached the rented 2003 Buick LeSabre being driven by Jones and began to ask Jones questions. The answers to those questions led the officer to ask Jones if he could search the vehicle,

No details. Trooper followed a hunch? Whatever the reason for the search, we don't need this guy fightin' fire.

 

[Parker Dean]

I agree that the stop was likely the result of profiling. I'm no LEO but I am out on the road in So TX and I get stopped quite frequently for lessee now:

Improper lane change 2X. It seems that you need to keep the turn signal on all the way into the other lane for three flashes after you straighten out

Illegal tint 3X. Never mind that the car carries the "legal" sticker and passes the litle test box every time. Oh and one time the cop was going 70 or so the other direction on a 4 lane divided highway at dusk, yeah right. He never even looked at the car after I got stopped Never asked for proof of insurance either.

Following an eighteen wheeler "too closely" 1X. I saw the trooper in the median and counted the distance, six seconds between the eighteen wheelr and I.

Speeding 2X. I wasn't . The first time he claimed I was doing 85 I made a little verbal challenge of Are you sure? and got a quick n nasty "I think I know what I'm doing!". Jerk. I was the only car around and he was going the other direction on a divided four lane. It's been years but I remember he said he didn't use radar just his eyes.

I'm sure there are others but i can't remember enough detail to bother. Anyway no tickets or even warnings are given as a rule, I got a couple of warnings I think one was for the tint, but they DO always ask to search the car

Anyway I'm now familiar with how the game is played and I suppose I'm not going to get too worked up about it. FWIW I've noticed that once my car is known they leave me alone until I buy another and the process starts again.

 

[444]

"The answers to those questions led the officer to ask Jones if he could search the vehicle, Atwater said. "

Why would he agree to this ? Why would anyone agree to this ?

I don't buy the illegal lane change either. I doubt that it took a genius to have suspicions. And he had to have some reason for pulling the guy over so lane change is as good as anything else.

 

[Don Galt]

You may not like drugs, and I for one choose not to do them, but the fact of the matter is all drug laws are unconstitutional. This cop just violated his oath, as well as violated this guys rights with an apparent illegal search. (Not to mention pulling him over without cause, another violation of his rights.)

 

[tyme]

How many people here always properly signal during lane changes?

Dude, thank God that marijuana is off the streets! Someone might... be getting stoned... or something.

Unless the firefighter was a pothead and was stoned while fighting fires or while sitting in the firehouse waiting for calls, I don't see how his night job as a marijuana courier had any bearing on his ability to fight fires.

Did the guy really consent to a search? If so, he must have been stoned. The article doesn't say he consented. It says the trooper asked for consent, then it goes on about what was found during the search.
[blockquote]But as the marijuana moves farther east, its price increases -- up to $1,400 to $1,500 a pound on the East Coast -- according to DPS information.[/blockquote]
Can someone explain why the DPS tracks marijuana prices?

 

[Fed168]

You would be amazed how daft people get when they carry contraband- alot of times they answer yes for the simple fact they would feel guiltier if they answered no. More often than not they think the officer is too stupid to find anything, so why not have a look? You have to wonder what the person is thinking.

In regards to the traffic stuff- a seasoned officer knows that traffic offenses happen, and may act upon them. In the course of the stop, he may see something or hear something that sounds odd, out of the way, or notices that things just do not match. So the officer may choose to investigate further and see what comes of it.

Sounds like pretty simple police work.

 

[El Tejon]

When I was in LE, I had an Indiana state po-po tell me he could tell the approximate weight of the amount of marijuana to be found in a vehicle based on the kind and number of air freshners around the rear-view mirror.

This was the same trooper who was on "America's Dumbest Criminals" when the guy drove his car to the state police post with a dugout on his dashboard over his VIN. "Hey, officer, can you look at my car. Something's wrong."

How to get yourself into a misdemeanor without even thinking!

 

[Standing Wolf]

Another Great Victory in the famous war on drugs. By the way, we, uh... are winning, aren't we?

 

[Orthonym]

Pretextual? OH yeah!

I was driving through Tatum, Tx back in the Fall of '92 on my way back to Atlanta from Austin, when I was waylaid by drug criminals with badges. I believe my offense was: Driving slowly and carefully. I was driving slowly because I was broke and needed to stretch my gas to Mississippi where my Gulf (BP?) credit card would work. I was driving carefully because I still believed that my obedience to the law required the policemen to leave me alone. Silly Orthonym!

The pretext was one of my tires' supposed touching of the end of a paint stripe on the road, where said road went from one lane to two, or something like that. During the entire rest of the sordid event, nobody ever produced a citation pad!

Of course I refused permission to search. The officer then said something like, " Well, that's your right, but it's my right to make you wait here while we get the dog, etc., out here, and to search anyway if I see etc etc. ..." Feeling terrorized, alone, and far from home, (broke, too), I gave him the key to the camper shell.

They let me go after an hour or two, my only consolation being the multiple fire ant bites the LEO suffered while crawling under the truck. (Finding nothing, of course) There was, naturally, no citation.


What really creeped me out about the business was that these fellows were NOT thuggish, but formally polite, acting as if they thought they were doing a noble virtuous deed while stomping all over the spirit, if not the letter, of the law! (not to mention amendments 4, 14, and 9!)

When I got to my destination I unpacked all my formerly clean clothes and washed them again. I just didn't want to put on the underwear those guys had pawed through before doing so. To paraphrase Lucy Van Pelt, "Eyeuuw! cop germs!"

 

[tyme]

It's sickening that police can detain for quite a while waiting for a drug dog when they have no probable cause.

 

[Pilgrim]

Of course I refused permission to search. The officer then said something like, " Well, that's your right, but it's my right to make you wait here while we get the dog, etc., out here, and to search anyway if I see etc etc. ..." Feeling terrorized, alone, and far from home, (broke, too), I gave him the key to the camper shell.

Call their bluff. Make them get the dog. Make them justify to their supervisor why they are tied up for two hours on a traffic violation trying to make a big dope bust.

Pilgrim

 

[rock jock]

all drug laws are unconstitutional

All federal drug laws may be unconstitutional, but the states have free reign in this area. And please don't quote the 9A to me. I have read it and commentaries about it and it doesn't mean what you want it to mean.

 

[tyme]

rockjock, even if drug laws at the state level are constitutional, enforcement of them inevitably requires violations of due process and of rights against search and seizure.

 

[rock jock]

tyme, you can always say "no". Of course, that assumes the average druggie has the intelligence to know his rights in the first place.

 

[Moparmike]

184 pounds!!!!!!!! It must have been packed TIGHT to fit in the back of a LeSabre. Not that I would know or anything....

Man, he should have built a van out of the stuff. It worked in Cheech & Chong...

He shouldnt be fighting fires. But he shouldnt have been prosecuted under such an unconstitutional law. Hell, I ran 85mph-100mph from Little Rock to Fayetteville w/o a single cop. Not that I would advise it, but it shows what a little luck and knowing your area's shift change will do.

And no, I had no contraband. My mom was even in the car. The car needed to have the "gunk" ran out of the engine w/ premium. German cars like that sort of thing.

 

[Brian Dale]

tyme,

I don't see how his night job as a marijuana courier had any bearing on his ability to fight fires.

It's about judgment, IMO. Ordinarily, I don't care if other people smoke dope when they're not behind the wheel (and the story doesn't say that this guy was smoking it, so I presume he was not). In a workplace with objective hazards present, I want careful people around me. For other examples, I don't want anyone at work with me in a chemical laboratory or driving a forklift who's half a step slow because they smoked the previous day.

If he's a FF, the standards I follow are higher. You have the moral right to insist that the other people on your fire crew are people with good sense. In the modern world, I take it as given that smuggling dope is a moderate-risk, high-potential-cost activity. I wouldn't want anybody with a hundred speeding and reckless driving tickets backing me up on a hoseline, either. Traffic tickets don't make somebody a bad person. It's that if they're crazy drivers, I'm not going to trust their judgment. Judgment calls: "Naaah, that power line's not gonna come loose." - " Oh, don't worry about that wall; it looks fine." - "Don't waste time stabilizing that car; it'll probably stay put. Just grab the guy & go."

No Thanks.

 

[Don Galt]

He's just lucky the cops didn't sumarily execute him on the spot:

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1569/a05.html

Rock Jock--

Most drug laws are federal. The states are decriminalizing the drug laws they have now. Furthermore, state police agencies get and use equipement stolen from people under assetforfieture and federal money to fight drugs. So, even if it was a state trooper, he is an agent of the federal government and thus in violation of the constitution.


Really, all these issues-- drug laws, gun laws, virtually everything the government does--- comes down to a question of human rights. Either you support them or you don't.

IF you support the drug laws, you undermine your alleged support for human rights when it comes to guns.