MPD seizes ton of marijuana
Raid’s haul may be worth $2 million
Memphis Police Department officers seized more than a ton of marijuana estimated to be worth $2 million in a raid Monday, officials said.
The 2,100 pounds of pot, a .357 handgun, Xanax pills and $170,000 in cash were confiscated from a home in North Memphis. Four people were arrested in the raid.
“So often, when you see seizures this size, they’re on the interstate passing through. This was found in a home in our city,” said MPD Director Toney Armstrong, who had all of the cash and a portion of the pot spread on two tables in front of him.
“It’s an extremely bad day for the bad guys.”
The four arrested were Gabriel Diaz, 24; Aramis Diaz Jr., 36; Armando Sauceda, 37; and Rene Hernandez, 36. Each faces felony charges of attempting to deliver and sell marijuana. MPD Director Toney Armstrong checks the weight of a bale of marijuana, part of a haul stacked for display on a trailer outside Organized Crime Unit headquarters Tuesday.
OCU officers received a tip about the drugs on Sunday, police said. Officers began surveillance, and on Monday, they conducted a traffic stop, detaining a man who had 100 pounds of marijuana.
From there, they moved to a home at 4114 Reenie, where they executed a search warrant. No shots were fired, and the suspects did not resist arrest, Armstrong said.
On Tuesday, police showed the marijuana to reporters at the OCU’s Downtown headquarters. The bricks of marijuana — the size of paving stones — filled a small trailer in the parking lot.
While this isn’t the largest such seizure in MPD history, it seems to be the biggest in the last half- dozen years. Over that time, police made several seizures of more than 1,000 pounds, but none this large, according to news accounts.
“I won’t say it’s the largest, but it’s a substantial amount,” Armstrong said. “It’s a cat-and-mouse game. Today, we won.”