Stock image by Cody Blowers, St. George News
ST. GEORGE — Officers discovered more than 100 pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop on Interstate 15, a recovery that has sent a Wisconsin woman to jail facing a distribution charge.
On Tuesday, an officer noticed a black passenger car heading north on I-15 near mile marker 10 shortly after 2 p.m., that was reportedly tailgating another vehicle during inclement weather that had left the road surface slippery from a recent storm.
According to charging documents filed with the courts, the officer conducted a traffic stop near mile marker 13 in Washington City.
The officer noticed a large black plastic trash bag on the backseat as he approached the car, and located nearby was a large gray duffel bag that extended across the entire backseat of the vehicle.
While speaking to the driver, the officer noticed several more trash bags in the back of the vehicle that were tied off, which raised the officer’s suspicions of possible criminal activity.
The packaging appeared to be consistent with marijuana being smuggled across the state, the report stated.
The driver, identified as 28-year-old Shyanna Nkauj Ci Her, of Menomonee, Wisconsin, told the officer she did not have her driver’s license on her, but said she did have a valid driver’s license issued out of Wisconsin, and then handed the officer her passport.
When a second officer arrived to assist, according to the report, a K-9 was deployed to conduct an exterior sniff around the vehicle, which is when the animal alerted to the possible presence of narcotics and the car was searched.
In the trunk, officers recovered several large plastic trash bags that were also tied off at the top that contained several individual large vacuum-sealed bags of suspected marijuana. Several duffel bags were also recovered from the trunk that contained similar bags that were sealed and contained the same leafy substance. The bags and duffel bag recovered from the backseat area of the car were also found to contain numerous sealed bags of the leafy substance.
In all, authorities recovered 112 individually sealed packages weighing one pound each.
When questioned, Her declined to answer any questions without an attorney present. She was transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility facing third-degree felony possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
Her remains in custody without bail.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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