The crew apparently stuck around for hours working with the various officials trying to work this out, which I assume would have included calls to both the supplier and customer, but were still arrested.
What's telling to me is that they were offered the chance to leave, but authorities wanted to keep the truck. If were not about forfeiture, the cops could have simply recorded everything, taken a sample of load, and sent them on their way. Charges could be pressed later, if needed. But then the locals don't have the truck to sell later.
There is no way a law enforcement person could possibly think that was actual marijuana for distribution. I mean, look at it. At "best", they may have thought they could gin something up related to the THC content not testing low enough, but that's a stretch. They just wanted to keep the truck, or they are complete idiots, or both.
What's telling to me is that they were offered the chance to leave, but authorities wanted to keep the truck. If were not about forfeiture, the cops could have simply recorded everything, taken a sample of load, and sent them on their way. Charges could be pressed later, if needed. But then the locals don't have the truck to sell later.
There is no way a law enforcement person could possibly think that was actual marijuana for distribution. I mean, look at it. At "best", they may have thought they could gin something up related to the THC content not testing low enough, but that's a stretch. They just wanted to keep the truck, or they are complete idiots, or both.
PAWHUSKA — Osage County’s district attorney dropped the marijuana trafficking case against two drivers of a hemp shipment seized in Pawhuska, but the security personnel who accompanied them continue to face prosecution.
“We have an individual grower who was from the state of Kentucky, who’s not licensed in the state of Oklahoma, who has not conformed with our laws. And federal law provides us some control over that,” Osage County District Attorney Mike Fisher said in reference to his stance that the cannabis material is not legal hemp, which requires no special transport licensing.
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, more commonly known as the Farm Bill, removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act effective in December; it does not impose prohibitions on transport or shipment of hemp across state lines.
Attorney Matt Lyons, who represents Ross and Dirksen, contends the two had the appropriate paperwork to help monitor the shipment until its end destination. The U.S. military service veterans now face charges, he said, that carry between 15 years and life imprisonment.
All 60 samples in the truck were tested by Redlands University here in the state of Oklahoma, and those results were the reason we chose to proceed,” Fisher said.
https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/marijuana/da-persists-with-marijuana-trafficking-case-upon-new-test-results/article_8c2af5b2-912d-5d08-91ab-a6ffdbe1163c.html
