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Traffic stop of Vancouver man yields $1 million in illegal drugs

By Jerzy Shedlock, Columbian Breaking News Reporter
Published: February 5, 2018, 11:02am

Authorities say a father from Vancouver and his adult son have been arrested after deputies found drugs, mostly marijuana, worth more than $1 million in their pickup truck during an interstate traffic stop  in North Dakota.

The Morton County Sheriff’s Office said in a release that Robert Earl Smith, 53, and his son, Christopher Conkey, 24, of Grants Pass, Ore., were stopped on Interstate 94 near Mandan, N.D., on Sunday morning.

The sheriff’s office said the men were arrested about 10 a.m., following a search of their truck prompted by what was described as suspicious behavior.

It started as a routine traffic stop. Conkey, who was driving, told a deputy they were hauling Super Bowl gear to Minneapolis. The deputy asked to search the truck, but the men refused. The father and son denied having anything illegal in the truck, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies said they moved the alleged drug smugglers to a patrol vehicle due to extremely cold temperatures. A drug-detection police dog sniffed around the truck and alerted deputies to the potential presence of narcotics.

An initial search of the truck turned up a banker’s bag with $2,400 in cash and large boxes filled with heat-sealed bags, the sheriff’s office said. A drug-enforcement officer responded to the scene and opened one of the bags, which allegedly held marijuana.

With a warrant in hand, authorities did a more thorough search of the contents of the truck. They found 210 pounds of marijuana, five pounds of marijuana concentrates and eight grams of methamphetamine.

Conkey and Smith are being held at the Burleigh/Morton County Detention Center in Bismarck, N.D.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Columbian Breaking News Reporter