A car hauler’s failure to display the required license plate on the front of his truck led to this week’s seizure of eleven bales of marijuana stashed inside one of seven vehicles being transported from Arizona to the Northeast.
Interstate Interdiction Unit officers stopped the tractor-trailer rig for the plate violation on I-40 east near Bellevue late Monday afternoon. The driver, Jose Eduardo Islas, 35, and his passenger, Eric Moreno Carpena, 26, both of Tucson, consented to the officers checking the truck and the seven used cars on the trailer for contraband. Inside the trunk of a Mercury Grand Marquis, which is registered to Carpena, were 265 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $250,000.
Islas and Carpena are both charged with trafficking marijuana for resale and are being held in lieu of $950,000 bond each.
The other six vehicles on the trailer appear to belong to innocent owners who had paid for their automobiles to be hauled to them.
###
Disclaimer: These links are being provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organization or individual. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.
Send questions or comments about this site to webmaster@police.nashville.org
