About $60,000 in marijuana is off the streets after a Wednesday morning bust.
A cooperative effort by Limestone County drug agents, Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department, Madison Police Department Canine Unit and the Madison County Sheriff’s Department netted six arrests for trafficking in marijuana.
Sheriff Mike Blakely said drug investigators followed a lead out of Lawrence County that led them to a home in Plantation East off Mooresville Road, which they placed under surveillance.
Between 10:30-11 a.m. Wednesday officers saw a car with a Washington state tag visit the residence of Tommie Edward Allen Jr., of 24925 Queen Anne’s Lace Drive.
Blakely said officers arrested the visitors, Jose de Jesus Ruiz Hernandez, 28, of Kent, Wash., and Andrea Ruiz, 24, of Tucson, Ariz., and charged them with trafficking in marijuana.
The sheriff said the pair allegedly made a delivery to Allen of about 48 pounds of marijuana packaged in 1-pound plastic zipper bags. Also in the Ruiz vehicle was a 10-month-old boy, who was turned over to the Department of Human Resources after his parents were arrested.
A short time later, officers arrested two more men leaving the Allen home in two separate vehicles, Blakely said. He said each of the vehicles contained 15 pounds of marijuana.
Blakely said that several months ago, a drug officer with Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Mitchell’s office told him that Allen, a former Lawrence County resident who had been charged in 2002 with trafficking in marijuana in Morgan County, had moved to Limestone County.
“We spent several months developing this off a little bit of information,” said Blakely.
The sheriff said officers spotted suspicious activity occurring at the Plantation East home.
“We put a lot of man-hours into this,” said Blakely. “He is no nickel-and-dime operator on the street. A lot of this was going out of the county.”
Mitchell, who attended Blakely’s press conference, confirmed that Allen had been an alleged dealer in Lawrence County.
Officers also confiscated $3,500 in cash and two handguns from the Allen home.
Others charged with trafficking in marijuana, beside Allen and the Ruiz couple, were:
• Marcus Leshun Willard, 35, of 851 Church Ave., Courtland;
• LaRon Cortez Redus, 26, of 13949, Nancy Lou Loop, Athens;
• Gregory Dewayne Garner, 40, of 6136 County Road 270, Town Creek.
“Trafficking in marijuana carries with it a minimum of three years in the penitentiary unless there are priors,” said Blakely.
Bond had not been set for the six detainees late Wednesday afternoon.
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Deputies seize $60K in pot
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