Memphis, TN: Police pulled over a vehicle on I-40 in Haywood County and recovered over a thousand pounds of marijuana, fifty pounds of edible “magic mushroom” products, and forty-five thousand dollars.
After a traffic stop in California, authorities detained and charged a Russian man.
A narcotics canine was deployed when agents from the 30th Judicial District interdiction team in Memphis pulled over a sprinter van for improperly displaying the registration, according to the West Tennessee Drug Task Force.
The drug proceeds, 46 pounds of psilocybin mushroom edibles (mostly chocolate bars), and more than half a ton of marijuana were discovered during the search of the van, according to agents. The arrest was one of the largest in the history of the West Tennessee Drug Task Force, according to Director Johnie Carter.
According to Carter, there were narcotics boxes labeled with other locations, including Tennessee, and it seemed like the driver had been making deliveries while leaving California with the drugs.
7000 Fentanyl Pills Busted With Heroine And Meth In Salt Lake City, Drug Peddler Arrested
Charges of delivering a Schedule I and Schedule VI narcotic were filed against the 43-year-old driver, Savinov Kirill, at the Haywood County Jail.
Carter added that Kirill, a Russian national, has spent around eight months in the US.
Agents from the 30th Judicial District in Memphis’s West Tennessee Drug Task Force discovered 85 pounds of street-value fentanyl—worth millions—during a traffic check in Haywood County near I-40 on March 10.
In that instance, 42-year-old Ernesto Ortiz and 25-year-old Maria Munoz-Arevalo of Humble, TX were taken into custody and are currently being held on a $5 million bond for the offense of distributing a Schedule II controlled substance.
The current situation of Kirill’s release is uncertain.