A Comprehensive Guide to Cannabis arrests and seizures worldwide

A brief history of cannabis arrests and seizures from around the world, from the blatantly obvious to the downright bizarre, including arrests for cultivation, arrests for possession, arrests for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Cannabis arrests brought to you on a daily basis, occasionally with a hint of humour.

Possession - Ryan G. Raddatz, 20, of Waukesha was cited for possession of a bag of old marijuana after he was

stopped at 7:37 p.m. March 14 for speeding on southbound Highway 74 near Capitol Drive. Raddatz's speed was 70 in a 55 mph zone.
Police gave Raddatz a verbal warning for speeding but asked to search his car and under the ashtray found a bag containing 0.5 grams of dry marijuana that appeared to have been in the car for a while, the police report said. Police also found a pack of cigarette rolling papers. Raddatz stated he had been a heavy marijuana smoker and had stashed pot in numerous places, but that he had quit after a life-changing event, the report said. He stated he had overlooked the bag of marijuana and the smoking papers.

The court heard how Keith Harrison set up a drugs network
A convicted killer

who set up a major European drugs smuggling ring while on the run from a UK jail is one of nine men in court over trafficking offences. Keith Winston Harrison, 50, fled to Holland after a home leave visit and started helping to bring drugs into the UK, Birmingham Crown Court has heard. Harrison, from Coventry, is one of nine men already convicted of conspiracy to supply amphetamines and cannabis. They are all expected to be sentenced on Thursday or Friday.
Operation Shearson :The court was told how Harrison used contacts he had established at HMP North Sea Camp in Lincolnshire to set up the network while living in Breda and Amsterdam. Harrison, who was serving a seven-and-a-half-year term for manslaughter and conspiracy to supply drugs, had failed to return to the prison after being given home leave in 2001.
Prosecutor Stephen Linehan QC said all the men were arrested as part of Operation Shearson, which was launched in 2002 by officers from the National Crime Squad (NCS) and their counterparts in Belgium and Holland. More Skullduggery ..............

The 17-year-

old Schoolgirl and the men, aged 27 and 30, were charged with a series of offences by Detective PC Anil Baboolal arising out of the Easter Monday kidnapping of Terrance D'Abreau. D'Abreau, 17, from Vega de Oropuche, Sangre Grande, was liming on a bridge when, around 2.30 p.m., three people pulled up in a Mitsubishi Lancer and forced the gardener into it. D'Abreau was driven to Jacelon Trace, in Vega de Oropuche where they beat him, demanding that he tell them where he had "the marijuana." They tried to force D'Abreau into the trunk of the car but after a struggle they put him in the back seat. He was then taken to some bushes at the back of the Roman Catholic Church in Vega de Oropuche where he was again beaten and asked about missing marijuana. He was taken further into the bushes where two other men, with cutlasses, joined in, beating D'Abreau again and took him further into the forest. Around 9 p.m. D'Abreau told one of the men he would take them to where the marijuana was and while walking through the forest, he cuffed the man, escaped and hid in some bushes. More sorrow............

A MAN who tried

to smuggle cannabis in to his friend at Highdown Prison is now behind bars himself.
Jovan Washington, 29, was sentenced to nine months after he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply on January 4 this year. Appearing at Guildford Crown Court on March 16, Washington, 23, dropped the drugs on the floor during a social visit.
Officers had already been suspicious of his clenched fist and confronted him.
Wayne Cleaver, prosecuting told the court Washington, of Mottingham, South London, was searched on the way in to Highdown, in Banstead, but nothing was found and he passed numerous notices warning visitors about taking in drugs.
The court heard Washington, who had convictions going back to 1995 including robbery and burgulary, was jailed on June 14 last year for possession of a controlled drug.
Abi Khan defending said Washington had been pressurised by other people into taking the drugs into prison.

'Not so Serious Shit'

75-YEAR-OLD man is facing drugs charges after police seized cannabis worth more than $150,000 from a south Sydney home. Detectives raided a property in Kareena Road, Miranda, at 3pm (AEST) yesterday acting on a tip-off, a New South Wales Police spokeswoman said today. More than 75 cannabis plants measuring 3m and valued at $150,000 were allegedly found in the backyard. A further 1.5kg of the drug was found drying or stored in drums inside the house, the spokeswoman said. A 75-year-old man has been charged with cultivating and possessing a prohibited drug and other drug-related offences. He was released on conditional bail and will face Sutherland Local Court on April 21.

A Moreno

Valley man is facing federal drug trafficking charges after he and a companion were arrested on an Ohio freeway last week with more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana, authorities said. The two men were driving east on Interstate 70 in a 1997 Kenworth commercial tractor-trailer loaded with lettuce when they were stopped approximately 60 miles north of Cincinnati, according to Lt. Rick Zwayer of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. They were initially pulled over for lane violations, Zwayer said. "They were going in and out of their lane without signaling," Zwayer said. Officers called in a drug-sniffing dog that began pawing at the truck, Zwayer said. Police searched the vehicle and found 2,318 pounds of marijuana in boxes among the produce. The marijuana had a street value of more than $5.2 million, making it the largest marijuana bust in the history of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Zwayer said. Full Tale....................

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A man

dressed like an old-time pioneer and parked along Interstate 70 puzzled deputies with his claim that he was headed to South Dakota with Bibles and ``supplies'' for American Indian children.
Then the deputies noticed a smell of marijuana as the man argued with them, and they searched his vehicle and found a staggering arsenal, including loaded pistols and an assault rifle with a 30-round clip and a bullet in the chamber.
A double-edged knife with an 8-inch blade was in the sun visor above the man's head, and a loaded two-shot Colt Derringer pistol was in his pocket, authorities say. Searchers also seized about 400 rounds of ammunition.
``He said it was all self-protection and that it's dangerous out west,'' St. Charles Sheriff's Lt. Craig McGuire said of Thursday's traffic stop that authorities said also uncovered an array of drugs. ``It's kind of bizarre, but it's all also kind of sobering.''

A mother who ran a family "tuck shop for drugs" in which she and her two sons peddled cannabis to schoolchildren will be sentenced today. Julie Morris, 46, cut the dope into tiny amounts so that youngsters could afford to pay for it with their pocket money. The former pharmacist sold the drugs from her Ford Mondeo and from her home in Heristone Avenue, Denton in Greater Manchester.

She also had a list of 38 customers, some as young as 13, and sometimes sold drugs for as little as 20p a time, the court heard. Morris struggled to fight back tears after she was found guilty of one count of supplying cannabis, following a trial last month. The jury cleared her of two other counts of supplying cannabis to two schoolgirls aged 13 and 14.
She will be sentenced at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester.
Morris was arrested in December 2003 after police discovered she had £13,000 in her bank account and more than £1,000 worth of cannabis in her handbag, purse and in her sons' bedrooms.
Michael Leeming, prosecuting, told the court, "They are drug dealers who run a family business.
"We say they were operating, in essence, a tuck shop for drugs -- it was not only a tuck shop from home, it was a mobile tuck shop as well, because she was prepared to deal from the car. Full Tale of woe...............

A LAWYER for accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has met the Australian prisoner whose testimony at her Bali trial may save her from a possible death sentence.

Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir, the main financier of Corby's defence, said he and Indonesian lawyer Lely Sri Rahaya Lubis had met briefly with Victorian remand inmate John Ford.
Mr Ford has been flown to Bali to testify at Ms Corby's trial tomorrow.
He is considered her best chance of escaping a possible death sentence for allegedly smuggling 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali's Denpasar airport last October. Mr Bakir said he and Ms Lely used the meeting with Mr Ford to discuss strategy ahead of tomorrow's trial. "It was a brief meeting," Mr Bakir said, refusing to elaborate other than to say Mr Ford clearly feared for his life. "There's not really much to say. "He's pretty scared. You can see it in his eyes."
Mr Bakir today said he hoped Ms Corby's Australian lawyer Robin Tampoe would be in court tomorrow, despite receiving an electric shock at a function on Friday night.

A 26-year old woman has been charged after another marijuana growing operation in Calgary. And once again, a young child was found in the home. Yesterday, police executed a search warrant on a home on Riverbend Drive in the southeast. Inside, they found a three-stage marijuana growing operation. There were 254 plants with an estimated street value of more than 300-thousand dollars.
A 26-year old woman and a one-year old child were home. The woman faces several charges, including production and possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Just 10 days ago, a 2-month old baby and a 2 and a half year old girl were seized from a home in Saddleridge after a bust there.

A drug dealer

who asked for a second chance was told by a judge he would escape prison because it was a sunny day.
David Harris, 23, of Purley, was not sent to jail last Friday after admitting possessing £400 worth of cannabis with intent to supply and possessing cocaine because the judge told him it was the end of the week and the sun was shining.
Harris had thrown himself on the mercy of Guildford Crown Court saying he had turned over a new leaf and begged for a second chance. Granting his request Recorder Paul Clements sentenced Harris to an 18-month community service and rehabilitation order with 80 hours' community work. He also ordered Harris, who has previous convictions for assault, criminal damage and possessing cannabis, to go on a drug rehabilitation programme.

"This stuff reeks and you can smell it a considerable distance from its source."

REDBRIDGE police have blamed the Government's reclassification of cannabis and the large houses in Redbridge for a fourth drugs factory being found in Redbridge in the space of eight days.
Last

week the Guardian reported that hundreds of plants had been found under cultivation at two separate addresses in Wanstead and Ilford. This week three people appeared at Redbridge Magistrates' Court after police unearthed two more factories, seizing hundreds of plants from two addresses in Ilford, and one of Redbridge's top policemen has suggested that the downgrading of the drug last year from class B to class C means that many people now think it is legal, increasing its demand. Ilford Police Inspector Nigel Nottage said: "Looking at the bigger picture it would be remiss if you didn't consider the reclassification of drugs and the undoubted confusion that this has caused to some members of the community .
"It's created a market for it, the confusion is there, and people don't consider it to be as serious as it was."
Plain clothed officers raided a large semi-detached house in Exeter Gardens, Ilford, on Wednesday, March 16, and gave chase to three people whom they caught and arrested in the back garden.
A total of 400 plants were growing in several of the rooms which were fitted with ultraviolet lighting and covered in tin foil.
The doors had been sealed with black bin liners and the electricity supply had been taken direct from the mains, by-passing the meter. Two days later police received an anonymous call telling them that someone had been seen trying to break into a house in Norman Road, Ilford. M.............ore

FIREMEN battling a blaze

in a luxury house found it crammed with cannabis plants worth thousands of pounds.
The People can reveal the #700,000 home is just one of dozens of upmarket properties bought by drugs barons as undercover bases. The firefighters discovered about 130 plants going up in smoke in a bedroom.
They used breathing apparatus for protection against the smoke - and to avoid getting high.
Another 150 plants in the living room survived. The marijuana, with a street value of £15,000, was being cultivated with a sophisticated light system. An electrical fault is believed to have caused the blaze.
Police probing the find in posh Wanstead, east London, have discovered similar hauls at other big houses. A source said: "Professional criminals buy beautiful houses which look like family homes from the outside. It's a perfect ruse."
Police said: "We will take all steps to root out such crime."

PORTLAND -- Vicki Marie Tyler, a diabetic amputee with a medical marijuana card, says she was asleep on her couch when 13 police officers raided her North Portland home looking for drugs .
Though officers found less than an ounce of marijuana during the 2003 raid, they seized her electric scooter on the grounds it was bought with drug money.
A jury last year acquitted

Tyler of drug-dealing charges. Now Tyler is trying to make it 2-for-2 in the courts, filing a federal lawsuit against the Portland Police Bureau because it kept her scooter for more than three months -- until a Multnomah County judge ordered the bureau to give it back. The police seized her scooter, among other pieces of property, even though the warrant did not list any property eligible for seizure, said David D. Park, Tyler's attorney. The police can seize property thought to be bought with drug profits, such as guns and expensive stereo equipment. But Park said the

police had no reason to believe that Tyler, an arthritic diabetic with kidney failure who uses a prosthetic leg, used drug profits to buy a scooter that requires a prescription from a physician. The suit seeks $15,000 for emotional pain and suffering. The suit also seeks punitive damages , claiming the police either maliciously sought to punish her or recklessly deprived her of her right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The Portland city attorney's office had not received a copy of the suit Wednesday. A Portland police spokesman declined to comment to The Oregonian. The lawsuit names 13 Portland police officers, including former Officer Jason H. Sery, who shot and killed an unarmed motorist named James Jahar Perez last year. Sery was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by a grand jury. More..........

ACCUSED drug smuggler Schapelle Corby yesterday received the news that could set her free – a prisoner in an Australian jail who claims to have

vital evidence in her case will travel to Bali to give evidence. The 27-year-old Gold Coast beauty therapist had been disappointed when she arrived at court on Thursday to hear that the way had still not been cleared for the inmate to come, and had been so stressed she was physically sick before fronting the judges. Vasudevan Rasiah, a consultant to Corby's legal team, said yesterday the man's evidence was critical to her case because it related to the fact that "a crime was committed in Australia". "His evidence is by far the most critical evidence we have," Mr Rasiah said. "His evidence as well as others we have put forward should make a very very strong impact on the case. "Mr Rasiah thanked Justice Minister Chris Ellison for his role in ensuring the man's attendance. Gold Coast lawyer Robin Tampoe, who along with mobile phone entrepreneur Ron Bakir recently came on board the defence team, said the Government's announcement that it would facilitate the prisoner's arrival in Bali next week was terrific news. Read On.................................................

WEST PHOENIX - More than three tons of marijuana were seized Friday at a vacant home after a neighbor saw people with firearms moving things into a truck, police said. Officers confiscated 6,700 pounds with an estimated wholesale value of $3.4 million, police said.

Perhaps as much had been hauled away before officers arrived, they said. Unfortunately, the stash shows that federal authorities have been correct in predicting large seizures because of bumper crops of pot , said Detective Tony Morales, a Phoenix police spokesman. advertisement "We are seeing extraordinary amounts of marijuana ," he said. "The bigger the load, the more danger that is posed to law-enforcement officers and the general public."Innocent people could be killed in shootouts involving rival gangs doing battle over such amounts, he added. On March 3, U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Nogales station seized more than 4,000 pounds in two vehicles. No arrests were made in Friday's case, which may be an example of one drug organization trying to rip off another, said Sgt. Lauri Williams, a Phoenix police spokeswoman. Police were sent to the home in the 8400 block of West Sells Drive after a caller said that people armed with rifles and handguns were loading items into a rental truck, she said. A vehicle sped off as police arrived and officers spotted a kicked-in front door and two large bales of marijuana in the front yard, she said. There were 307 more bales inside the house, police said. More.......................

A man has been charged in connection with the seizure of drugs with a street value of £750,000 in County Armagh. Cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, cannabis and pharmaceutical drugs were found in Craigavon's Parkmore area on Wednesday. A number of weapons and ammunition were also uncovered along with a substantial sum of money. A 38-year-old has been charged with 14 separate offences involving the drugs and weapons and is due to appear before magistrates in the town on Thursday. A second man arrested at the time has been cautioned by detectives and released.

'hot houses'

March 24, 2005 From: AAP

TWO men have

been arrested for growing cannabis after Victorian police recovering stolen goods from the

property next door noticed their crop.Police had gone to a house on Old Cap Schanck Road in Rosebud, south of Melbourne yesterday to look for a stolen caravan and boat. They found what they were looking for and arrested several people and then one of the officers noticed several plastic hot houses next door full of large cannabis plants. When police went next door they found the hot houses contained mature cannabis plants more than two metres tall believed to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. A 54-year-old Rosebud man and a 54-year-old Mulgrave man were arrested and charged with cultivating and possessing cannabis.Police said they expected to pull the crop out and destroy it today as soon as they had authorisation from a magistrate.

A computer consultant gave up his £60,000-a-year job to develop a cannabis cream as pain relief for his mother, a court has heard. Stephen Renton, 38, grew more than 770 plants, with a potential street value of £77,000, in the attic of his flat.

His mother Sheila has suffered from chronic nerve end damage for 10 years, while Renton has chronic joint pain. He pleaded guilty to producing and supplying cannabis and sentence was deferred for background reports. Firefighters discovered the crop, the largest ever found in the Lothian and Borders area, when a blaze caused by an electrical fault broke out at Renton's flat in Midlothian. When police raided his home they found a stack of books on growing the crop, a sophisticated hydroponic system worth up to £6,000, a generator and extensive lighting. In the garage were seeds and plant cuttings stored in bin bags. Advocate Depute Alex Prentice told the High Court in Edinburgh that when his flat went on fire, Renton panicked about his illegal crop and fled, but later returned. He was arrested and told officers that he "was experimenting with the drug to help his own ailments and those of others for medical purposes". Full Tale.....................

Woman charged after drug raid 4kg

DRUGS

worth an estimated $100,000 have been seized in a police raid on a home in Sydney's south. Officers searched a home at Blakehurst yesterday and allegedly found 37 cannabis plants being grown hydroponically, police said.They also say they found 4kg of dried cannabis leaf and small quantities of ecstasy, heroin, cocaine plus some cash. A 29-year-old woman was arrested at the house and charged with cultivating a prohibited plant, four counts of possessing a prohibited drug, two counts of supplying prohibited drugs and having goods in custody. She is expected to appear in Sutherland Local Court on April 21.

Getting hold of

Patricia Tabram was no easy task. Ring her phone and an answering machine kicks in straight away."This is grandma speaking," it begins before going on to give the number of her agent in London, the same literary agent that looks after legendary drug-dealer Howard Marks.Patricia Tabram is no ordinary grandma. Since she was arrested in January, 66-year-old Patricia has rarely been out of the media spotlight.The grandmother-of-two's bungalow in the quiet Northumberland village of Humshaugh, near Hexham, was raided twice last year by police after they were tipped off about the unusual smells coming from her kitchen.Smells caused by the high-grade cannabis Patricia puts in her food. For more than 18 months Patricia has been making home-made cakes, soups and casseroles with cannabis mixed in. It is, she says, the only effective way to relieve the pain and depression she has suffered for almost 30 years.The news story, exclusively revealed in the Chronicle, caused a storm. Soon other reporters were knocking on her door. Then the story went international. The Story Cont..............

EMERGENCY services answering routine calls in Redbridge have unearthed two large cannabis factories, yielding thousands of pounds worth of plants. Stunned firefighters stumbled across almost 300 cannabis plants during a routine call in Wanstead on Monday.This came three days after police officers investigating an address in Ilford found every room of the property full of cannabis plants.The incidents are apparently unrelated and so far police have made no arrests.Firefighters were called to a four-bedroom house in Blake Hall Road, Wanstead, at around 9.30am and as they entered were confronted with a forest of cannabis plants.Police have not been able to put a price on the drugs, but a similar factory recently found in nearby Chingford produced a street value of around £14,000 worth of cannabis per single harvest.Passer-by Paul Wood, who saw inside the living room, said: "There were hundreds of cannabis plants there. It was a very sophisticated operation with lots equipment and special lights to help the cannabis grow."A police and fire investigation is continuing but it is thought the fire may have started after an electrical fault.Police gave chase but the, The Full Tale.................

David Davies, 81, and his wife Florence Davies, 77

THE nation's

oldest drug traffickers have failed in an appeal against their convictions for possessing cannabis estimated to have been worth up to $264,000.World War II veteran David William Sidney Davies, 81, and his wife Florence

Gladys Davies, 77, now face the prospect of having their West Australian home seized under the state's tough proceeds of crime laws.The pair, who have been married for 58 years, last year received suspended sentences after a jury in the District Court found them guilty of two counts of possessing cannabis with intent to sell or supply.During the trial, the court was told 18.7kg of the illegal drug was found above a false ceiling in the couple's Carlisle home, in Perth's south-east.A further 300 grams was found in an ice-cream container under their bed, and $7000 cash was found hidden under the driver's side seat of their car.When questioned about the drugs found in their bedroom, Mr Davies told police it was used to relieve Mrs Davies' back pain. Read on............................

Schapelle Corby, the 27-year-old facing the death penalty in Bali for drug smuggling, today clutched her sister's hand and said "Oh my God" when told of new evidence which could clear her.But Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty today dismissed the new evidence as hearsay, with no direct link to the beauty student's case.She was told only this morning about a crucial affidavit, obtained by her Australian lawyers and unveiled yesterday, implicating others in her case.The signed statement claimed Corby was an unwitting drug courier who had been used by a criminal gang in a bid to smuggle 4.1 kilograms of cannabis from Brisbane to Sydney.The pillowcase-sized stash was discovered by Indonesian customs officers last October as Corby passed through Bali airport.Corby, 27, flew to Bali from Brisbane, via Sydney.She learned of the new statement today as she waited in a holding cell at the Denpasar District Court ahead of her next trial appearance.Corby looked delighted but said little as her sister Mercedes reached through the bars and, amid tears, broke the news. More.........................

'stolen electricity from the main power grid'

FIVE people

have been charged with a range of drug offences after police targeted an alleged syndicate growing hydroponic marijuana worth up to $2.5 million in Sydney's southwest.More than 100 police from the South-East Asian Crime Squad raided 12 homes and a business in Revesby, Padstow, Panania, Milperra and Fairfield yesterday and allegedly found more than 1000 cannabis plants, ranging from seedlings to mature specimens.After searching the properties, police arrested two couples, whom they alleged masterminded the criminal syndicate, growing cannabis inside at least eight homes, and a fifth person.A 28-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man have now been charged with two counts of commercial cultivation, goods in custody and cultivating an indictable amount.Two more women, 38 and 29, were each charged with cultivating an indictable quantity. More of......................

'Elderly Italian' man arrested in cannabis raid

A 75-year-old man is expected to face court today over alleged connections to an Italian crime syndicate.Police arrested the man following a raid on his Wetherill Park home, in Sydney's west, early this morning.The raid was part of a continuing investigation into an Italian-organised crime syndicate involved in growing and selling large commercial quantities of cannabis, police said.A police spokeswoman said the man was expected to be charged and face court later today.Drug squad detectives have seized cannabis worth more than $200 million and arrested 58 people since investigations began in 2002.The elderly man is alleged to be a significant figure in the organisation, providing capital to buy a number of properties used to cultivate cannabis crops.His is the latest arrest following a series of investigations into Italian crime networks More of an offer................