2 held in big LV marijuana haul

Cathy Scott

Thursday, March 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A Nevada Highway Patrol trooper today bagged 284 pounds of marijuana, which has a street value of about $500,000, and arrested two California men on drug trafficking charges.

The marijuana was stashed in the stereo compartment and under and behind the back seat of a 1985 GMC utility truck, NHP Trooper Steve Harney said.

"It was piled in there in packages," he said.

Trooper Bruce Roper, a patrol officer on the graveyard shift, noticed the vehicle just after midnight weaving in and out of traffic on northbound Interstate 15 at Lamb Boulevard, so he pulled it over.

Two men in the front seat appeared nervous, Harney said.

"One of them panicked and said, 'We don't have anything,' which led to a consent search of the vehicle," he said.

The men told Roper they were headed for Utah and Colorado.

Roper called for backup from a Spanish-speaking trooper and the two searched the vehicle and found the marijuana.

Arrested were Edward Garcia, 24, of Fontana, Calif., and Marlon Gracias, 34, of Torrance, Calif. The car is registered in Garcia's name, Harney said.

Two women from Mexico, passengers in the back seat, were not arrested. A 1 1/2 -year-old son of one of the women was also in the car.

The women, who wrote out statements, said they didn't know anything about the marijuana.

"You could tell they didn't have a clue, that they knew nothing," Harney said.

It is the largest marijuana bust in the history of the NHP, Harney said, including seizures by the NHP's drug intervention team, noting "that's good police work."

The largest previous marijuana seizure by the NHP was 190 pounds in early 1995, confiscated on I-15 in Clark County.

In January, Metro Police confiscated 530 pounds of the illegal drug, worth an estimated $1 million.

And in October 1995, 220 pounds of cocaine were confiscated by the NHP's drug interdiction team.

The team trains troopers such as Roper to know what to look for, Harney said.

"Each NHP officer is trained in drug intervention," Harney said. "He's just a street officer who works graveyard."

After the arrest, Roper said, "I'm happy to be able to do this to get this marijuana off the street so it doesn't end up in the hands of kids somewhere else in this country."