Arrest in major pot smuggling incident

Arrest in major pot smuggling incident

HAMILTON COUNTY, FL - A New York City man was arrested last week for trying to smuggle an estimated $462,000 in marijuana out of Florida. He was caught at an inspection in the northeastern part of the state.

Charged with trafficking in marijuana and using a commercial vehicle to facilitate the commission of a felony, which are both third-degree felonies, was Joel Lugo, 26.

According to investigators with Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson’s Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement (OALE), the suspect drove a refrigerated semi-truck trailer into the I-75 interdiction station in Hamilton County on Tuesday in the process of leaving Florida and told officers that his rig was empty.

A subsequent examination of the vehicle’s cargo area detected a motorcycle and several wood pallets that concealed a hidden compartment in the nose of the trailer. Further examination revealed that the hidden compartment contained 83 packages of marijuana totaling 77 pounds. Authorities also seized $834 in cash in various denominations.

Lugo was booked into the Hamilton County Jail following his arrest.

Bronson credited the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department for their assistance in the case.

The arrest caps a busy five-year period at the department’s 23 interdiction stations, where OALE officers have recovered an estimated $23 million in drugs, stolen goods and contraband at the locations. Individual seizures have included a $7 million cocaine shipment, $600,000 in stolen medicines, 60 large-screen televisions and a truckload of stolen computer chassis.

Designed historically to keep plant and animal pests and diseases out of Florida by inspecting the more than 10 million commercial vehicles that enter or leave the state each year, the stations are playing an increasingly important role in homeland security efforts, as officers have detained several truckloads of illegal aliens in addition to the seizure of stolen goods and contraband.