Colorado bust bares buds, trafficking charge
On Mon, March 23, Kansas police pulled over a rental car for bearing license plates not matching the vehicle. The three occupants were not at fault, yet their innocence went up in a puff of smoke after consenting to a vehicle search. The officer identified a vacuum sealer, vacuum bags, packaging tape, rubbing alcohol, Febreze spray, a small amount of personal marijuana, hash oil and THS edibles.
Perhaps the most incriminating discovery, according to OPD, was a United States Postal Service receipt, including tracking number, for an 11-pound package sent from Frisco, Colorado to Oxford, Ohio due for delivery noon, March 25.
Kansan authorities contacted OPD, who then turned to USPS in Cincinnati. Indeed, the package was already being tracked there, and had yet traveled to the Oxford post office. The renter of the vehicle, whose sister's name was sender on the receipt, was an Oxford resident and former Miami University student returning from Colorado with two others. OPD believes the suspect worked at Shriver.
OPD in tandem with Butler County's BURN unit executed a federal search warrant on the package. Authorities discovered four pounds of marijuana and hash products in the box, which the man had insured for $100. As the package's prescribed delivery deadline passed, the sender repeatedly called the post office inquiring as to its whereabouts, even dropping by in person intending to collect it.
OPD, desiring to attempt a controlled delivery, obtained a search warrant for the receiving address on the package, an apartment in the 100 block of N. College Ave. The man was not home, so the detective left a note and tried again after the sender informed OPD, assuming the post office, to leave it on his doorstep. Officers did so, and then watched the suspect, clad in black, slowly roll down the adjacent alley in a silver truck, grab the package, duck inside and promptly leave with another male.
They were stopped by agents and the passenger immediately ran, not getting far before stopped by the net of police long in place.
Once asked about the package, OPD said the suspect repeatedly insisted he was not a drug dealer, rather, he desired to distribute the drugs to family and friends to spare them the risk of acquiring it around Oxford.
A search of the suspect's apartment and another rented in his name yielded a scale and his laptop, still open to the USPS package tracking website.
The passenger was not charged, but the package recipient was charged with Trafficking in Drugs: containing marijuana other than hashish and Possession of Drugs: marijuana.
Repeat offender found in possession
At 9:30 p.m., March 26, OPD responded to the Parkview Arms apartment building at 5032 College Corner Pike in response to reports of multiple gunshots fired.
As officers entered the parking lot on foot, they found a female and young boy riding bikes. The female promptly answered she had heard nothing, but the child said he heard loud bangs but couldn't remember when.
After allowing the pair to ride on, officers noticed a Cadillac Escalade idling with its lights on and back door open. Shining their lights on the car, officers approached and found three occupants, one of who reported hearing approximately 10 gunshots from the front of the building and invited officers to search the vehicle.
A male well known to OPD - a so-called "frequent flier" - was in the backseat. Officers asked he exit the vehicle and said they would perform a pat down in search of arms. Nervous, the man slipped his hand into his pocket, according to OPD. An officer swiftly pulled out his hand and placed it on the back of the cruiser. Before patting down the suspect, officers asked the known IV drug user if he possessed anything sharp. He said no, and officers immediately felt a syringe in his pocket. OPD expressed dismay the suspect had lied to them, and he claimed it was a pen.
Yet, it was indeed a syringe, making it the second time in as many weeks the man had lied to OPD about possessing IV drug instruments. The syringe was sent to the crime lab. OPD says it was probably used for heroine, as in the man's past offenses.
OPD found no other contraband and the suspect was released in the parking lot after having been issued a summons to court on the charge of possessing drug abuse instruments. The man has another court date from a March 14 incident on the same charge.
Police report quiet Green Beer Day
Green Beer Day was calm this year, according to OPD. Unlike past years, Butler County PD was not called down. Two DUIs were issued during the day, but OPD said the day was nothing to write home about.