A 25-year-old Racine man was arrested on drug charges for having $20,000 in high grade marijuana shipped from California to his home, which has become a growing trend in Racine County, said Sgt. Scott Krogh, of the Racine County Metro Drug Unit.
Ricardo Garcia-Vasquez was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, keeping a drug place and possession of drug paraphernalia by the Racine County Metro Drug Unit at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 2 at 518 College Avenue.
Investigators were tipped off by the U.S. Postal Service by a mail inspector after a drug sniffing dog hit on a package that was being sent to the address. When agents with the Racine County Metro Drug Unit investigated, they found about four pounds of marijuana in Garcia-Vasquez’s home, which carries a street value of $20,000.
While the practice of shipping marijuana through the mail has been going on for several years, Racine Metro Drug Unit agents are seeing it done more often.
“As more states have legalized marijuana, we’re seeing more people having marijuana shipped from those states, including Colorado, Washington and California,” Krogh said. “And many farms in those states are growing more than they can sell legally within the state.”
Because the marijuana is grown in controlled grow operations on farms and not out in the wild as it is in Mexico, the marijuana coming from states that have legalized marijuana is a higher quality, Krogh said.
Often times the Metro Drug Unit doesn’t issue press releases on all the cases because they often offer the suspect the option of becoming a confidential informant.
“But the activity is definitely on the rise,” Krogh said.