A 74-year-old Dowelltown man charged after an August 2014 investigation determined that he had received a package at the Liberty Post Office containing 14 pounds of marijuana was given unsupervised judicial diversion probation for a period of two years and fined $2,000 in DeKalb County Criminal Court last week by Judge David Patterson.

According to Sheriff Patrick Ray, John Harris was taken into custody by the sheriff's department after an investigation by his detectives and United States Postal Service Inspectors concluded that he had received the illegal weed in the mail.

"Sheriff’s Department Drug Detective Jeremy Taylor went to the Liberty Post Office and met with an inspector from the US Postal Service. Based upon US Postal Service profiles and information that was obtained by a US Postal Service Inspector about a sealed package that had been delivered to the Liberty Post Office, Detective Taylor summoned Smithville Police Department K-9 Officer James Cornelius and his K-9 Leo to the scene. Leo alerted to Officer Cornelius that an illegal substance was in the sealed targeted package," the sheriff shared.

"After the alert from the K-9 that an illegal substance was present in the package, officers waited for someone to come and pick up the target package from the post office,” Ray said “After a short wait, Harris came and picked up the package. Officers then witnessed Harris attempt to take the package and place it in his personal vehicle. Officers then raided Harris and seized the targeted package. Harris gave permission for officers to look inside of the package and found were approximately 14 pounds of marijuana in 18 individual bags."

The sheriff said the illegal weed seized in the bust was not typical of the pot his department usually recovers. “This marijuana is not the kind we regularly see here. These bags of marijuana were packaged in Ziploc bags and then were vacuumed packed. This was to hide the distinct smell that marijuana gives off. The bags weighed anywhere from 10 ounces to just over a pound. Written on each of the bags were different strains of marijuana. Purple Diesel, Blue Dream and Buddha Cheese were just a few of the strains listed. Street value for the marijuana is anywhere from $375 to $454 an ounce or $5,712.00 to $7,264 a pound.”

Ray said Detective Taylor also seized cash and the 2009 Dodge Avenger Harris was driving.