NO WONDER IT HAS BEEN A DAMN DROUGHT!.. LOL.. SIKE NAW LEMME STOP..
MOUNT HOLLY - A New Jersey state trooper testified Tuesday about finding some 1,400 pounds of marijuana hidden in a compartment behind a tractor trailer's load of honeydew melons.
The testimony came on the first day of the trial of the truck's driver, Anthony Hewitt, 54, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., in Superior Court before Judge Jeanne T. Covert. Hewitt and his co-driver, Dervan Facey, 61, of Rosedale, N.Y., are charged with possession of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute.
A jury of eight women and six men are considering the case against Hewitt. Facey faces trial later this year.
Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Frank Hughes told the jury Hewitt and Facey were on their way from Arizona to the Bronx to drop off the melons on Nov. 5, 2005, when a state trooper pulled the truck over for inspection on the New Jersey Turnpike in Mount Laurel.
Authorities found more than 1,400 pounds of pot, with an estimated street value of $2.8 million, Hughes said. He described Hewitt as being part of an "interstate drug-smuggling ring" and said the drivers were to be directed to a location in Brooklyn after unloading the melons in the Bronx.
"What the evidence will show is that Anthony Hewitt was involved in the transportation of marijuana. + He agreed to be part of this conspiracy," Hughes said.
Trooper Wayne Hancock testified he stopped the tractor trailer for a safety inspection and found various violations even before discovering the compartment hidden behind a false wall at the front of the 53-foot trailer. The trailer's interior measured about 49 feet, with the hidden 4 feet behind a makeshift wall, the trooper said.
The defendant eventually showed troopers how to open the battery-operated compartment door, saying nothing when bales of suspected marijuana were found, some weighing up to 30 pounds each.
"We saw red and yellow cellophane type packages," Hancock testified. "Through our training, we knew that was a common way to wrap marijuana."
Hancock said he questioned Hewitt, the owner/operator of the tractor trailer, about the illegal cargo. "He said he knew about the compartment, but not about what was in it," the trooper testified.
In his opening statement, Cedric Edwards, Hewitt's court-appointed attorney, said the state must prove his client had knowledge of the drugs and control over them. He said Hewitt didn't have either, comparing the situation to a person who borrows another's car, but doesn't know what's in the trunk.
"Though he knew how to operate it, did he know what was behind that door?" Edwards said. He also said co-defendant Facey played an "integral part of driving the truck."
Hewitt told police Facey had the phone number of the person who would direct them where to go after dropping off the melons to drop off the hidden cargo.
Hughes said the state will present two expert witnesses, including a forensic chemist and a drug-trafficking expert.
The 2005 case was delayed after attorneys for the defendants sought and won a motion to have the drugs suppressed as evidence in the case, arguing that the search of the tractor-trailer was illegal. The Burlington County Prosecutor's appealed and won, when the state Appellate Court ruled in 2008 that the search was within the scope of the troopers' regulatory authority to conduct safety inspections.
Both Hewitt and Facey are free on bail. They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
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