Smell of pot leads to man’s arrest

A man was arrested on a drug-dealing charge after a Pocatello police officer on routine patrol smelled marijuana coming from a car.

The officer smelled the strong odor coming from a black Volkswagen Jetta in the area of North Main Street and Custer on Saturday evening.

A police dog and another officer arrived, and the K-9 walked around the outside of the Jetta. The dog was alerted to the presence of the odor of illegal narcotics. At that time, the car’s occupant, Zachery James Kinney of Pocatello, said he had a “roach” in the vehicle that he had smoked before driving home.

Officers searched the car and found a rolled cigarette suspected to contain marijuana. They could also smell the odor of marijuana in the back of the car.

When officers opened the trunk, Kinney, 24, began shaking.

Police said as they began to inspect a backpack, Kinney turned around on his own, put his hands behind his back, and said, “You can go ahead and arrest me.”

In the backpack, officers found a 9 mm Smith and Wesson handgun with three loaded magazines and a round chambered in the gun, as well as a “considerable amount” of drugs: three large Ziplock bags with a large amount of green leafy substance that was suspected to be marijuana, and a Ziplock bag with compressed green substance, suspected to be hashish. They also found a scale, and a black book suspected to be a drug ledger.

Kinney was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and possession of a Schedule IV drug.

Kinney was incarcerated at the Bannock County Jail.