Just shy of 60 kilos of cannabis found in Jeep that was hit by train

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A rescue turned to recovery — of illegal drugs — after police officers in Nebraska responded to an accident involving a private vehicle and a train.

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According to KSNB Local 4, which has been posted on the Adams County Sheriff’s Office’s (ACSO) Facebook page, deputies responded to the scene on the afternoon of Jan. 6 to find the driver and sole occupant of a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee had tried to make it over the tracks at a non-crossing location, but his vehicle got stuck on the tracks just north of the legal crossing.

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The southbound freight train then struck the vehicle, but, fortunately, the man from Arizona did not sustain any injuries. The driver’s luck, though, soon ran out.

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While the incident was being investigated, officers discovered about 59 kilograms of illegal cannabis inside the now-damaged Jeep. Police also found a handgun.

Both medicinal and recreational cannabis is illegal in Nebraska, although attempts have been made to green light the former and possession charges for the latter are misdemeanours. Related maximum punishments are zero days to three months in jail, plus fines in the hundreds of dollars, until the amount reaches more than 454 grams.

That’s when a possession charge becomes a felony carrying five years in prison and US$10,000 ($13,400) fine, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

“Law enforcement is vigorously enforcing marijuana laws and has found that it is easy and lucrative to target drivers entering Nebraska,” notes information from Petersen Criminal Defense Law.

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Nebraska is bordered by South Dakota (medical marijuana is legal), Iowa (medicinal cannabis is legal), Missouri (adult-use weed is legal), Kansas (recreational cannabis is illegal), Colorado (bud is legal) and Wyoming (marijuana is illegal).

KSNB reported the driver was arrested and taken to the Adams County Jail.

Oddly enough, the collision in Nebraska is not the first time police found illicit bud following a crash.

This past April, it wasn’t much of a 4/20 celebration for two drivers who were arrested for drug trafficking following a collision that left about 227 kilograms of weed scattered on Interstate 70 in Missouri. Online arrest reports at the time indicated charges have been laid against two drivers, including felony first-degree drug trafficking.

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In the summer of 2021 in the U.K., an illicit grow-op was discovered after a car went crashing through the wall of their house. Although the homeowner “surprisingly wasn’t home” at the time, police took to Twitter to invite him or her to contact officer so everyone could “have a little chat about what was inside.”

Also in the U.K. in early 2021, a dramatic, high-speed car crash in South Yorkshire left heaps of cannabis strewn on a roadway and sent one person to hospital with minor injuries. It appears that the bags of bud were flung onto the road when the trunk of a Volvo, which was reported stolen, opened after being hit from behind by a Mercedes. The Volvo driver then hightailed it from the scene.

And then there was the North Carolina man who inadvertently slammed his vehicle into a cop shop in South Carolina. Insult was added to injury when the man suffered injuries and also ended up being charged with weed possession after investigating officers found the illegal drug in his car.

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