42 Pounds of Marijuana Seized

BY JOHN PATTERSON
SALISBURY POST

Members of the Rowan County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Investigative Unit seized weapons, cash and more than 42 pounds of marijuana from a residence on Carolyn Road Thursday night.

Investigators also arrested two residents at the house, located at 201 Carolyn Road, and charged them with a number of drug offenses.

The marijuana, divided into plastic sandwich bags for sale, has an estimated street value of $102,000.

Detectives, who started searching the house around 9 p.m. Thursday, also recovered $4,276 in cash, a Lorcin 9 mm handgun, a Davis .32-caliber handgun, a pistol-style crossbow and various drug paraphernalia.

Arrested were Mario Arnulfo Mendoza, 38, and Julia Kristie Warr, 31. Mendoza was charged with trafficking in marijuana, maintaining a dwelling to keep, store or sell a controlled substance, driving with a revoked license and simple possession of marijuana.

Warr was charged with trafficking in marijuana and maintaining a dwelling to keep, store or sell a controlled substance.

Mendoza was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center under $250,000 bond. Warr is being held under $2,500 bond.

Though the 42.5 pounds of marijuana seized Thursday night wasn’t a record, it’s nevertheless considered a large seizure for Rowan County, according to investigators.

Some other notable marijuana busts in recent memory:

nSheriff’s Department investigators discovered more than 41 pounds of marijuana while searching a residence at the Wildwood Mobile Home Park on March 22, 1998. Deputies were actually looking for another man they had warrants on when they found the marijuana.

nIn one of the largest seizures ever in Rowan County, investigators from the Sheriff’s Department, Salisbury Police Department and the State Bureau of Investigation found 150 pounds of marijuana at a residence on East Ridge Road on Jan. 23, 1997. The street value of the marijuana seized was close to $270,000.

nSheriff’s Department investigators found a field of marijuana plants behind a residence in the 500 block of Spring Garden on April 20, 1997. The plants had an estimated street value of $153,600.

nIn another one of the largest busts in Rowan history, investigators found 46 pounds of marijuana in a custom Ford van stopped at a roadblock on July 12, 1995. But that wasn’t all they found – after searching the van more, detectives found 54 additional pounds of pot hidden in the van’s ceiling. The marijuana seized was valued at $340,000.