2,200 POUNDS OF MARIJUANA SEIZED; 8 CHARGED

MONROE - Law enforcement officials announced Friday they have confiscated
2,200 pounds of marijuana, worth more than $2 million, and arrested eight
men in connection with the shipment.

Union County Sheriff Frank McGuirt described the marijuana bust as the
biggest in his 20 years as sheriff.

The drugs, bound for Monroe, were hidden in pottery trucked into the United
States from Mexico, McGuirt said.

U.S. Customs Agents detected the drugs when the shipment came into Texas
last week, and they contacted the Union County sheriff's office.

Officers tracked the delivery to rural Chesterfield County, S.C., where the
marijuana was unloaded at a farm off Farris Cato Road.

After a search last Saturday, officials seized the drugs, as well as two
tractors, a road trailer, a new all-terrain vehicle and about $3,500 in
cash. They arrested four men at the scene; another four have been arrested
since.

U.S. Customs officials have asked local authorities not to release the names
of the suspects and the charges, McGuirt said.

Involved in the arrest were the Union County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration, Cabarrus County Sheriff's Office, the N.C. State
Bureau of Investigation, Monroe Police and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.