A traffic stop of a tractor-trailer on I-40 near Bellevue for traveling without a license plate has resulted in the seizure of 198 pounds of marijuana. The two Georgia men inside the rig are charged with possession of marijuana for resale and are being held in the Metro Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond each.
Interdiction officer Bill Morgan stopped the tractor-trailer Monday as it headed toward downtown. Morgan asked the driver, Michael Ivan Lennon, 41, of Covington, Georgia, if he could check the truck for contraband. Lennon agreed.
While inspecting the sleeper compartment of the truck, Morgan discovered 12 wrapped bales of marijuana concealed under cots. Lennon and his partner, Douglas Jamal Hightower, 35, of Lithonia, Georgia, had recently moved the marijuana from the trailer to the sleeper compartment so that it would not be discovered among a legitimate shipment of electronic components that was to be offloaded in Nashville.
Detectives have learned that the electronic components were picked up in California ; however, the marijuana's origin remains under investigation. It is unclear whether the final destination for the marijuana was to have been Nashville or Atlanta.
The tractor-trailer rig, which Lennon owns outright, is worth an estimated $50,000. It was seized under Tennessee's drug trafficking laws.
Michael Ivan Lennon
Douglas Jamal Hightower
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