Astounding sniffer on this deputy, eh? From the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On 10-19-2012, a Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy patrolling in a marked patrol car near Titlow Hill Road, Berry Summit, was driving eastbound on Highway 299, when he smelled the strong odor of green marijuana. The deputy noticed the smell right after a Blue Chevy Pickup truck with several tarps over the bed passed him. The deputy turned his patrol car around and followed the vehicle. The deputy initiated a traffic stop on the truck after determining the smell appeared to be coming from the truck. The deputy contacted the driver and two other occupants and told them why he stopped them.

The deputy searched the bed of the truck and located twenty-seven large bundles of green budding marijuana plants that had just been harvested. The deputy interviewed the driver and occupants and they all told them him they were transporting medical marijuana for a medical marijuana collective in Orange County, California. They provided the deputy with several marijuana recommendations. The deputy determined several of the recommendations were expired or some were not legible. Based upon the deputy’s investigation, the deputy determined the marijuana being transported was not covered by the Compassionate Use Act.

The deputy arrested the three occupants of the vehicle for felony transportation of marijuana. Arrested was Michael Blake Hoskin, 23 years old from Blue Lake, California, Jason Michael Shockley, 24 years from Westminster, California, and Brittany Anne Hawkins, 26 years from Atlanta, Georgia. They were all transported and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility. Hoskin and Shockley’s bail was set at $75,000.00.  Hawkins was booked and released on her own recognizance.

The investigating deputy called some of the medical marijuana card holders that the suspects provided to the deputy.  Some of the card holders told the deputy the collective was shut down, others said they never authorized their card to be used in the cultivation of marijuana by the suspects.