Members of Nebraska State Patrol earlier this month were involved in two commercial vehicle stops that led to high-profile criminal interdictions. In one, troopers took nearly 20,000 pounds of drugs off the street and in the other recovered a trailer filled with stolen electronics and other items. Both incidents occurred in Dawson County in the south central part of the state.
The first incident occurred Friday, Sept. 4, at about 8 a.m., when a trooper performed a traffic stop on a tractor-trailer near mile marker 228 on I-80. During the traffic stop, the trooper performed a commercial vehicle inspection and detected the odor of marijuana.
Troopers searched the vehicle and located thousands of pounds of marijuana, THC products, and psilocybin products in the trailer. In total, there were 27 pallets of boxes in the trailer containing the products.
The packages contained a total of approximately 5,200 pounds of marijuana, 13,600 pounds of THC products, and 1,000 pounds of psilocybin products. The street value of the drugs has been estimated at over $50 million. NSP believes this is the largest volume drug interdiction in agency history.
The driver, William Gomez, 44, of Virginia, was arrested for possession of controlled substances and possession with intent to deliver. He was lodged in Dawson County Jail.
The second incident happened Wednesday, Sept. 9. That evening, NSP was alerted that a semi in Nebraska may be transporting professional speaker equipment, valued at $250,000, that had been reported stolen.
At about 5:30 p.m., a trooper located the tractgor-trailer parked at a truck stop near Gothenburg. The trooper contacted the driver and discovered that the driver’s commercial delivery paperwork was false. The driver was placed out of service and not allowed to continue driving.
Troopers obtained a search warrant for the trailer. A search of the trailer revealed that about half of the trailer contained miscellaneous items that were intended for Walmart facilities in Florida. The other half of the trailer contained the high-end commercial speakers that were destined for Las Vegas.
Further investigation led to the discovery that all the items had been stolen from Illinois and New York. Investigators are still working to determine the total value of the stolen items, but the speakers alone have an estimated value of $250,000.
After being placed out of service, the driver fled. An arrest warrant has been issued for the driver, who was identified as Ashwani Kumar, by his New Jersey non-domicile CDL.
Both investigations remain ongoing.
