A routine traffic stop turned into the first major drug bust of a young Howard County officer?s career ? and a charge against a man police are calling a “drug kingpin.”
“It shows there?s no such thing as a routine stop,” said Officer David Aronovic, 22, who is in his first year on the police force.
Aronovic and the Howard County Police Department on Wednesday night seized more than 400 pounds of marijuana, valued at about $500,000 from a Jeep Cherokee driven by Chester Griffiths, 43, of Baltimore, police said.
Aronovic stopped the Jeep for having a suspended license plate, when he detected a strong odor of marijuana and found three large brown boxes, covered with an oil to mask its smell, police said.
Police charged Griffiths with being a drug kingpin and possession with the intent to distribute a large amount of marijuana. The drug kingpin charge carries a penalty of a mandatory minimum 20-year sentence.
The bust was the third major seizure of hundreds of pounds of marijuana in Maryland in the last month ? the last two seizures coming a day apart.
Baltimore City police busted into an East Baltimore row house Tuesday night and shut down an estimated $1.5 million marijuana-growing operation on the second and third floors, officials said.
On May 10, the Anne Arundel County Police Department completed a six-month investigation with the seizure of more than 684 pounds of marijuana
The seizures vary in value based on the quality of the drug.
Anne Arundel County Police said their bust has had a noticeable effect on the drug trade in Glen Burnie.
“It basically dried up the marijuana trade,” said Lt. David Waltemeyer, an Anne Arundel County police spokesman. “No one can get it.”
Baltimore City police say marijuana dealers are just as dangerous as dealers of other drugs, and they have seized 95 guns from marijuana deals this year.
Officers from other jurisdictions agreed.
?It?s not uncommon to find large sums of cash and fire arms and guns with marijuana,” Waltemeyer said.
