ATLANTA — Police are working to make more arrests in what they are calling a record-breaking pot bust.
Investigators seized thousands of pounds of marijuana, worth an estimated $9 million, from a box truck after getting a tip.
Atlanta police told Channel 2’s Tom Regan that getting the pot off the street will curb drug-related crimes, but others say legalizing the drug, as is the case in other states, will go further in that effort.
“There's still a big market for marijuana in this country and in the state of Georgia," Dep. Chief Darryl Tolleson, of the Atlanta Police Department, said.
Investigators said thousands of pounds of pot were snatched from a drug mule after the Atlanta Police Department got a tip that the truck was passing through Atlanta on Monday.
State police pulled the truck over after narcotics police took the driver and truck into custody.
“We opened the back of the truck up and inside we located some 5,800 pounds of marijuana. Street value is approximately $9 million. We think it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest, we have ever had in the city,” Tolleson said.
The shrink-wrapped bales had been dipped in chloride to hide the pungent pot odor from police and drug-sniffing dogs.
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Police said they would reveal where they believe the pot originated and where it was going.
While it may not be as profitable for dealers as drugs like heroin, Tolleson told Regan, “The fact remains, it's sought after commodity."
While Atlanta police are proud of the huge seizure, Billy Fields, who works at the Pot Shop store in Little Five Points, is less than impressed.
“It's a waste of resources for sure," Fields told Regan.
Even though his store doesn't sell pot, he believe making it legal will save lives.
“If you make it legal, you take out the criminal element,” Field said.
But Atlanta police disagree.
“I don’t think we have enough studies out there that would change our minds, right? Our positions is we don't advocate for the legalization of marijuana from what see tied to any and all drugs,” Tolleson said.
This morning, a magistrate judge denied bond for the truck driver, Jose Ibarra, 29. He's charged with marijuana trafficking.