PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — During a news conference on Friday, police said they found $1.5 million dollars of marijuana and it’s all thanks to some very observant employees.
In January, employees at the UPS Store on 23rd Street in Panama City called police as soon as they noticed three large packages that reeked of marijuana.
The boxes had come through the local mailing store for delivery.
“Since I’ve been a member of the police department this is the largest amount of marijuana that has been seized,” Panama City Police Department Corporal Kristain Shaw said.
After the UPS employees called the police, investigators examined the boxes and said they found 190 pounds of marijuana.
They said marijuana is the most common drug they see and it often leads to violent crimes.
“Individuals who are out here selling marijuana at the street level majority of the time those individuals are armed, which leads to violent encounters,” Shaw said. “Those are the individuals that we are targeting and trying to take off the street.”
The next day police stopped a van, driven by the suspect, 31-year-old Yunqing Wang.
When police stopped Wang’s van, they said they could smell the marijuana inside of the boxes.
Then they found 4 more large boxes of marijuana in the van.
“It’s exciting to be a part of this investigation where this amount of marijuana has been seized. A lot of the time when we are investigating violent crimes involving drugs, normally it is marijuana involved,” Shaw said. “So not only did we get a large amount of marijuana off the streets, but in return we also make the streets a lot safer at the same time.”
Investigators said they are still trying to identify where the marijuana came from, where it was headed, and who is involved.
Wang was charged with trafficking marijuana, possessing a counterfeit driver’s license, providing a fake ID to a law enforcement officer, and possession of narcotic equipment.