Prisoners picking up highway trash find $1M in pot

Work crews in St. Joseph got more than they bargained for while cleaning up roadside litter.

The prisoners found 678 1-pound packages of marijuana and three large bags of loose pot in a ravine with a street value of more than $1 million.

The St. Joseph News-Press reports the site is in a deep ravine near a county road and it took some effort to stash the drugs down there. The Buchanan County newspaper quoted local Deputy Matthew Thornton on the find after prisoners hauled up eight double-sacked bags weighing about 25 pounds each.

“The bags felt funny,” he said, opening to investigate. “Who’d have ever thought we’d find that much? It was unreal. I couldn’t believe it.”

The News-Press reports the drug cache was destroyed.

Read more from the St. Joseph News-Press.