Nine people sat in the White County Jail Wednesday night after an undercover police officer posing as a delivery driver took shipments of pot to three separate homes in Beebe. Conway Police intercepted the shipment at a Federal Express location in Conway early Wednesday morning.
Fifty-eight pounds of pot with a street value of $58,000 are off the street after a Federal Express worker noticed something suspicious about some packages Wednesdy morning and called Conway Police. K-9 officers brought out drug dog Bax who found the drugs and since they were addressed to Beebe, Conway called the White County Sheriff's Office.
"That's one of the things we've tried and strived to do is work close with other agencies," Sheriff Ricky Shourd says.
The cooperation paid off. The shipment originated in McAllen, Texas and was headed to three homes in Beebe. White County Sheriffs investigators got an idea about how to make the bust. When investigators got the pot from Conway Police, they had to improvise renting a truck and getting a uniform so they could make the delivery. They got a Searcy Police officer to wear the uniform and make deliveries to the homes all within about a mile of each other. After the pot was inside, sheriff's deputies started making arrests. They arrested 5 women and 4 men all together. They'll most likely face charges of possession with intent to deliver.
"You get 58 pounds of marijuana off the street and we're talking about a lot of marijuana and that puts a big dent in somebody's pocket book which we're glad to do," explained Sheriff Shourd.
A Federal Express spokesperson sent FOX16 a statement saying the company has a tight security program in place across its network to spot suspicious packages. They also say they have a strong record of cooperation with law enforcement in situations like this. But the spokesperson calls this incident isolated.
So far no one has been officially charged and sheriff's deputies haven't released their names. Incidentally authorities found 10 children between the three homes and DHS has custody of some of them.
