Gainesville Police arrested a 72-year-old San Francisco man Wednesday after discovering he was carrying duffel bags filled with 53 pounds of marijuana.
Officers arrested Donald Forrest Morrison on charges of trafficking more than 25 pounds of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to an arrest report.
At about 5:40 p.m., an officer working with Gainesville-Alachua County Drug Task Force pulled over a silver Honda driving southbound on South Road 93 for following too closely at mile marker 375, according to the report.
Morrison seemed nervous and was shaking, according to the report. Police asked him if he had anything illegal in his car, and he said he didn’t.
When a corporal arrived on the scene, he walked a police dog around Morrison’s car. The dog alerted police that drugs were inside the car, according to the report.
A search of the vehicle uncovered 4 ounces of weed and rolling papers in the driver’s seat, according to the report. Police then found three duffel bags filled with the roughly $250,000 worth of marijuana.
Officers booked Morrison into the Alachua County Jail at about 8 p.m. He was released at about 4:20 p.m. Thursday after meeting a $52,500 bond.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 2/21/2014 under the headline “I-75 stop uncovers 53 pounds of weed"]
