NO FREE LUNCH FOR OKRA FANS; THESE VEGGIES WILL BE SOLD

Word that Charlotte-Mecklenburg police had 43,000 pounds of confiscated
okra on their hands raised local hopes of a veggie handout.

But police said Tuesday the okra they snared in a bust that also netted 720
pounds of marijuana will stay in the hands of food brokers looking for a buyer.

This weekend, a California food company was shipping a truckload of frozen
uncooked okra from Mexico to a Monroe processing company. The company
officials didn't know smugglers had stashed 16 boxes of shrink-wrapped
marijuana in the refrigerated truck, police said.

Four men, two from Texas and two from North Carolina, were charged with
marijuana trafficking after officers caught a group unloading the drug,
worth an estimated $1.8 million, into an East W.T. Harris Boulevard storage
building early Saturday.

After getting word of the bust, officials at the Monroe company, which
police declined to name, decided they didn't want the load anymore. So it
headed to a west Charlotte food storage company.

About a dozen people called The Observer and police Tuesday to ask if they
could have some of the vegetable, popular locally as a fried side dish.

But the California company footing the transportation bill is still looking
for a buyer, said Capt. David Grose of the Police Department's vice and
narcotics bureau.

"Don't call. It will be sold," Grose said. "It will still go to somebody
who's going to process it."