2 TONS OF POT, DESTINATION ST. PETERSBURG

ST. PETERSBURG - The moving truck, packed with cardboard boxes and wood
crates, pulled into Hide-Away Storage Services about noon Saturday. Howard
Powell had just finished unloading 11 boxes when federal agents swooped
down on the 34th Street S business.

Inside the semitrailer: 4,179 pounds of marijuana, the largest non-
maritime marijuana seizure in Florida in two years, agents said.

"Initially, when we all heard this was going to south St. Pete, we were
like, "What?' " said Nicki Hollmann, a Drug Enforcement Administration
supervisor in Tampa. "It sounded unbelievable. We usually think of Miami as
the larger drug city."

Investigators say they fear the bust, 2 tons worth $3-million, is a sign
that traffickers are getting bolder in the Tampa Bay area, seeing it as
growing market. A typical federal marijuana interdiction nets only 100 to
500 pounds.

"Obviously, the traffickers are seeing an opportunity," Hollmann said. "We
do believe that marijuana was destined to be distributed by St. Pete or
Tampa area distributors."

DEA investigators arrested Powell, a Jamaican national, on federal charges
of conspiring with others to possess and distribute marijuana. He is being
held without bond in the Orient Road Jail in Tampa.

Investigators say Powell, 27, of Miramar, is a middle man, a trusted
associate in a "very high-level" operation.

He told investigators he was paid $5,000 to meet the delivery in St.
Petersburg.

The driver of the Los Angeles-based moving truck has not been charged and
is cooperating with authorities. His name was not released.

He told investigators he has made several deliveries to St. Petersburg and
to a storage facility in Gulfport since the fall of 2003.

No other arrests have been made so far, but agents are continuing to
investigate.

Some local police agencies say they, too, are seizing more marijuana. So
far this year, St. Petersburg officers have confiscated more marijuana than
all of last year. In May alone, they seized 194 pounds.

"All over Florida, it's the most widely available type of drug that we
see," said Robert Alfonso, a narcotics sergeant with the Pinellas County
Sheriff's Office. "We know that there's a lot of pot in Pinellas County."

Investigators say penalties for marijuana dealing are not as harsh as
heroin and crack cocaine, so dealers may take more risks by shipping larger
loads.

"What my concern is, are we going to start seeing a lot more of these
trucks," said Dominic Albanese, assistant special agent in charge of the
DEA office in Tampa.

The truck agents seized on Saturday contained farm-grown marijuana smuggled
into the United States from Mexico, investigators said. Wrapped in 108
compressed plastic bundles, it was nestled in boxes and crates and loaded
onto a semitrailer at a warehouse in California and junkyard in Arizona.

Its destination: St. Petersburg. Stops were scheduled in Orlando, Palm
Beach and North Carolina.

On Aug. 5, at a checkpoint north of Laredo, Texas, officers with the U.S.
Border Patrol stopped the white Kenworth semitrailer.

They discovered 14 boxes and three wooden crates of marijuana and notified
the DEA, which set up surveillance and followed the truck to Florida.
Eleven of the boxes were marked with the initials "FL."

According to an arrest affidavit, at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Powell called
the truck driver and told him to take I-275 to the 22nd Avenue S exit and
to meet him at 34th Street S.

At noon, Powell led the semitrailer into Hide-Away Storage Services at 3950
34th St. S. to a 10-foot by 15-foot unit. It was rented to a St. Petersburg
resident who has not been arrested, but Powell was an authorized user.

Johna Hershelman, a manager at the Hide-Away, was working when DEA agents
told her to keep everyone outside the gate.

"I was shocked," said Hershelman, 62. "I've never seen a DEA agent in my life."

She didn't recognize Powell and was in the office when the arrest went down.

After Powell was arrested, a DEA agent asked him what was inside the boxes.

"Looking around, obviously drugs," Powell said, according to the arrest
affidavit.

Federal agents also asked him why he had a statue of an angel standing over
a baby Jesus in his vehicle.

Powell told them it was for good luck.

"I guess my luck ran out today," he said. "I had a bad feeling this morning."

Times researchers Caryn Baird and Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.