Cleveland Browns player Greg Robinson was caught hauling half his weight in marijuana at the southern border, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Robinson, a 330-pound offensive lineman, was caught with 157 pounds of marijuana in duffel bags after drug-sniffing dogs singled out his vehicle at the Sierra Blanca Checkpoint Station in El Paso, Texas. Robinson was traveling with another football player, Jaquan Tyreke Bray, formerly of the Indianapolis Colts, and an Uber driver he had met in 2018.
The three were arrested at the scene. Authorities claimed that Robinson urged the Uber driver to take the blame for the drugs during the arrests and said he would pay off the driver to take the fall for the two players. The driver denied that he knew about the drugs and refused to take the blame for the situation.
The Department of Justice charged Robinson and Bray with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. These charges carry up to 20 years in prison.
Robinson was a first-round draft pick in 2014. He played for the St. Louis Rams, the Detroit Lions, and the Cleveland Browns. In 2019, he played a full season in Cleveland, but the team did not re-sign him for the upcoming 2020 season. He would have entered the season as an unrestricted free agent, but it is unclear how his legal troubles will affect his future. Bray had played just three seasons with the NFL before opting to join the Canadian football league.
The Trump administration has been working to crack down on drug smuggling between the United States and Mexico. The administration spent $25 billion on an anti-drug-smuggling operation that has stopped more than $3 billion worth of drugs from entering the country.
