State police seize 150 pounds of pot
Idaho State Police seized 150 pounds of marijuana on Interstate 84 in Meridian early Saturday morning.
Police said around 2 a.m., a trooper stopped to check on a driver of a tractor-trailer stopped along the eastbound side between the Black Cat and Ten Mile overpasses.
The driver, Michael John Wojciechowski, 48, of Dunnellon, Florida, had stopped to sleep while waiting for road construction to finish.
The trooper smelled marijuana and asked Wojciechowski about it. ISP said Wojciechowski admitted to having an ounce of marijuana. However, the trooper searched the vehicle and found about 150 pounds of pot in the cab.
ISP seized the marijuana, $2,000 in cash and the tractor-trailer.
Wojciechowski was arrested on suspicion of felony drug trafficking and booked into the Ada County Jail. The mandatory minimum sentence for the trafficking more than 25 pounds of marijuana is five years in prison and a fine of $15,000, and the maximum penalty for trafficking marijuana in any amount is 15 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Police estimated the street value of the marijuana at half a million dollars. ISP said Monday it came from Washington state and was being shipped through Idaho to the eastern part of the United States.
