TONS OF MARIJUANA FOUND AT INDIANA WAREHOUSE

INDIANAPOLIS -- Authorities have seized more than five tons of
marijuana and about $4.3 million during a seven-month investigation
that resulted in what they believe is Indiana's biggest drug bust ever.

A team of federal agents and city police officers found dozens of
bales of wrapped marijuana at a warehouse on the west side of
Indianapolis last week after an investigation that started in March,
when officers found about $2.6 million inside a hidden compartment of
a semitrailer.

U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett said investigators believe the cash was on
its way to a Mexican drug cartel while the seized marijuana had a bulk
value of about $5 million - and a street value potentially 10 times
more.

"This was significant because we got them both coming and going,"
Hogsett told The Indianapolis Star. "The money was going, and we
interdicted the drugs that were coming."

Four men are jailed on federal drug charges in connection with the
bust.

Although there have been larger drug busts in the nation -- including
25 tons of marijuana seized in a New York home in 2009 -- Dennis
Wishern, the Drug Enforcement Administration's assistant special agent
in charge in Indianapolis, said he knew of no larger seizures in Indiana.

The driver of the semi with the hidden cash, which was vacuum-sealed
and wrapped in dryer sheets and carbon paper, told police he'd been
hired in a Mexican border town to drive to Indianapolis, collect money
and return it to McAllen, Texas.

He told police the money had been given to him outside the grocery
store by a Hispanic man driving a black H3 Hummer, but investigators
say they weren't able to pin down a suspect until an Arkansas state
trooper stopped a pickup with more than $580,000 hidden inside, all
wrapped identically to the cash seized in Indiana in March.

That led drug agents to the Indianapolis warehouse, located at 805 S.
Girls School Road according to the Indianapolis Star. There they found
the marijuana wrapped in green plastic, as well as hundreds of boxes
of powdered detergent, which traffickers use to mask the scent.

Authorities say agents later found $1.1 million more at the home of
one of the men they arrested and at another residence. At least two of
the men they arrested were in the country illegally.

Hogsett said the authorities delayed announcing the bust because local
and federal agents were still investigating.

"I'd love it if this investigation could go straight back to Mexico
and we could indict a member of the cartel," First Assistant U.S.
Attorney Josh Minkler said. "That would certainly be the goal."