Harrison County Sheriff’s Office talks about suspected marijuana found in 18- wheeler

Harrison County, Texas (KLTV) - Harrison County Sheriff’s Office deputies seized several hundred pounds of suspected marijuana after a traffic stop.

It happened Tuesday afternoon on U.S Highway 59 near Interstate 20, where the driver, 33-year-old Brandon Ashley Beck, of Chicago, was taken into custody.

The smell of the marijuana was so strong that the K-9 alerted to it almost as soon as he was out of the deputy’s vehicle.

The 18 wheeler had some problems that made a couple of deputies suspicious, according to Lt. Jay Webb with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office.

“The tail light was hanging on the rear of the truck. So they turned around. They made a stop on the vehicle,” Webb said.

The truck had problems on the front end, too, so they started talking with Beck, the driver.

“We call it a flowing statement where he was just continuing to talk and continuing to talk about things that were going on in his life, and it just didn’t add up,” Webb stated.

RELATED: K9 sniffs out 400 pounds of pot in 18-wheeler after traffic stop

At that point, the deputies called one of their new K-9’s, Hank, and his handler Kaylee Wallace, to the scene.

“They got there, and Hank immediately alerted on this vehicle. And when I say alerted he gave the indication that there is something not right,” Webb said.

Basically as soon as Hank got out of the K-9 vehicle, he sat down - his indicator. Then they cleared the scene, Webb said.

“Allowed the dog to walk around a minute and come back, and the dog sat down in the same place and alerted in the same manner,” Webb said.

That gave the deputies probable cause to search the trailer, and before long, they found bales of marijuana spread out in the trailer.

Webb said the truck came out of Laredo and was heading for Illinois.

“The other items that were in the truck were bottles of liquid soap,” Webb revealed.

If Beck was trying to use soap to throw off a K-9’s scent, it didn’t work.

“As they removed these bales of marijuana, and they got them back here to the jail and weighed them, we ended up with a little over 400 pounds,” Webb said.

Beck was booked into the Harrison County Jail for possession of marijuana, greater than 50 but less than 2,000 pounds, a second-degree felony.

Beck was arraigned and a $100,000 cash bond, which means someone has to pay the full amount, not just 10 percent. The cash bond was set since he’s considered a flight risk.

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