A 45-year-old Brown Deer man was assigned a $10,000 cash bond Friday for attempting to take possession Thursday of 18 pounds of marijuana from California in a semi truck.
Racine County Sheriff’s deputies say the drugs have an estimated street value of $120,000.
Cory Thompson was charged Friday in Racine County Circuit Court with a single felony count of conspiracy to
commit marijuana possession with the intent to deliver. If convicted, he faces up to 12-1/2 years in prison and/or up to $25,000 in fines.
According to a press release from the Racine County Sheriff’s Department, members of the county’s Metro Drug Unit worked in conjunction with Nebraska State Patrol and the state Department of Criminal Investigations to apprehend Thompson. He was taken into custody when he arrived in Racine County to take possession of a semi truck that had the marijuana stashed inside a Mercedes with a taped trunk that was being hauled the auto auction on I-94.
Deputies say this is “yet another case of marijuana being sent to our area from states with legalized marijuana laws.”
Authorities say they first became aware of the drugs when investigators in Nebraska found the car on the truck and noticed the trunk was taped. When they opened the trunk they found two sealed duffel bags one of which contained 10 vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana weighing 4,965 grams. The second duffel bag contained seven vacuum-sealed bags weighing 3,585 grams.
If sold on the street, the marijuana could sell as high as $400 an ounce, for a total street value of $120,000, the release reads.
Thompson agreed to speak to investigators without a lawyer, the complaint reads, and first said he purchased the car in California and knew the trunk was broken so he taped it shut. Then Thompson said the trunk was already taped shut but it popped open so he added more tape and admitted that he was the only one with paperwork who could legally take possession of the car and that he hired the truck driver to bring the car from California.
The defendant denied putting anything in the trunk, but when police say they told he would be responsible for the contents of the trunk he said, “I need a lawyer then.”
Thompson remains in the Racine County Jail on a cash bond of $10,000. He will next be in court Oct. 1 for his preliminary hearing.
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