BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — 300 pounds of marijuana — that's what an Erie County Sheriff's deputy found when he pulled over an Oregon woman on the thruway in West Seneca Monday night.
The marijuana was vacuum-sealed in one-pound bags and was stashed inside nine garbage bags in the back of her pickup truck.
Chief of Detectives DJ Granville of the Erie County Sheriff's Office Narcotics and Intelligence Unit said the marijuana was likely headed to illegal dispensaries that have opened up across Western New York.
He said the illegal operations "are popping up all over the place causing a nuisance to various communities.”
That's despite 15 legal dispensaries opening in the last year in the Buffalo-Niagara region.
“This is a lot of marijuana. We don't come across this very often," Granville told me as he showed me the pile they sezied.
He said money is the motivating factor.
"There's money to be made, hand over fist," Granville said.
While some may think buying and selling marijuana is harmless, he says it's anything but.
"You see these violent robberies, some that we don't even hear about because...what are you gonna report that 'I had 300 pounds of illicit marijuana stolen?,'" said Granville.
According to Granville, his detectives are working with the state to keep shutting down the illegal operations.
“We've been successful in shutting some of these places down and they've been hit with some pretty heavy fines," he said. "But you've got to stay on top of them because they'll pop right back up.”
