Idaho State Police make largest pot bust in agency history

Police seize 6,700 pounds of pot in a semi-truck

Camie Yngelmo by Camie Yngelmo







Courtesy: ISP







Idaho State Police say troopers made the biggest marijuana bust in the agency’s history after seizing more than 6,700 pounds of marijuana plants from a semi-truck as it drove between Boise and Mountain Home last week.

ISP spokesman Tim Marsano said today the truck from Portland, Oregon was stopped on January 24 as part of a routine commercial vehicle safety inspection. The driver’s paperwork said he was carrying 31 bags of hemp.

The trooper, however, smelled a strong odor of marijuana and opened one of the bags.

A field test showed the plant was marijuana.

An ISP drug-sniffing dog was also called and alerted to the presence of drugs.

36-year-old Denis V. Palamarchuk of Portland was arrested and charged with felony marijuana trafficking.

“This is the largest Idaho State Police trafficking seizure of this type in any present-day trooper’s memory,” ISP Director Colonel Kedrick Wills said in a press release.

The plants have been sent to an independent lab for further testing.

Between 2014 and 2018, Idaho State Police say they seized the following amount:

2014 – 319 pounds

2015 – 458 pounds

2016 – 507 pounds

2017 – 1,375 pounds

2018 – 2,131 pounds

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