Turnpike bust nets pot valued at $3.3 million

PIKE TWP. - A vehicle stopped Saturday on the Ohio Turnpike for having a stolen Michigan license plate was carrying marijuana valued at $3.3 million, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reported.

Troopers from the Swanton post pulled over a 2009 Chevrolet Suburban at 3:10 p.m. at Exit 39 in Fulton County after an electronic license plate scanner at the Westgate interchange was alerted to the stolen plate. The driver, Louis A. Sommers, 62, of Irving, Texas, failed to produce registration paperwork for the license plate and was taken into custody.

Further investigation revealed four additional stolen license plates in the vehicle and 10 bags of suspected marijuana weighing approximately 300 pounds, according to Lt. M.J. Wiederman. Twelve pounds of the suspected marijuana was identified as the BC Bud variety with a street value of approximately $600,000.

The total street value of the confiscated marijuana is approximately. $3.3 million.

Sommers is incarcerated at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio in Stryker, where he will be served today with arrest papers for: one count of aggravated trafficking, a first-degree felony; four counts of receiving stolen property, each a fifth-degree felony; and one count of drug abuse, a second-degree felony.

No other information was available. An investigation continues.