POLICE TRY TO CRACK PIKE POT HIJACKING

FRAMINGHAM -- State Police are investigating numerous tips about the three
unidentified men who tried to hijack a tractor trailer full of marijuana on
Friday, while the truck drivers await their day in court tomorrow.

"It's still under investigation," said State Police spokesman Trooper Tom
Ryan. "There's still nothing concrete to report."

Trooper Todd Glidden of the Weston barracks said police have fielded
hundreds of tips phoned in, but they have not led to arrests.

On Friday night, three masked men in a white rental van somehow forced an
18-wheeler heading west on the Turnpike to pull over. While one of the
three men got into the truck with the driver and a passenger, the other two
masked men followed in the van, police said.

The hijacker ordered the driver to get off at Exit 12 in Framingham, but he
continued on. After a struggle, the tractor trailer veered off the road,
and the hijackers fled in the van.

The two men in the truck told police they were delivering rolls of paper
from Ontario, Canada, to North Carolina.

A State Police drug-sniffing dog discovered 800 pounds of marijuana, worth
roughly $1.2 million on the street, inside the truck.

Harjiven Cheema, 31, and Harpreet Chahal, 25, both of Ontario, are charged
with trafficking marijuana and will be arraigned tomorrow at 9 a.m. in
Westborough District Court.

The whereabouts of the three hijackers is still unknown, Ryan said.

Anyone with information about the hijackers is asked to contact State
Police in Weston at 781-43-5050.