NLR bust nets 615 pounds of ‘pot’

North Little Police Department property officer Brian Mitchell packs away bags of marijuana Monday afternoon after a news conference to show off the drugs, weapons and cash seized in an interagency drug bust Sunday.
North Little Police Department property officer Brian Mitchell packs away bags of marijuana Monday afternoon after a news conference to show off the drugs, weapons and cash seized in an interagency drug bust Sunday.

— North Little Rock police made one of the largest marijuana busts in the department’s 106-year history Sunday, seizing more than 600 pounds of the drug, a small cache of guns and $23,000 while serving a search warrant at the warehouse of a Pulaski County construction firm.

After a two-month investigation that Police Chief Danny Bradley is continuing, investigators arrested Harold Eugene “Buddy” Green, 42, of Little Rock, who was the only person inside the Trade Seasons Construction warehouse and office at 15525 Lawson Road when police arrived about 4 p.m. Police charged Green with maintaining a drug premises, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, simultaneous possession of guns and drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia.

“This was not a one-time thing,” Bradley said Monday. “This was a continuing operation.”

The business appeared to be a thin front for drug-dealing, Bradley said.

He said his department worked with sheriff’s offices in Pulaski and Saline counties as well as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the criminal investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service.

On Monday afternoon, in a little-used, humid room without air-conditioning, North Little Rock police laid out cash, a shotgun, four rifles and a pistol - and pounds upon pounds of marijuana.

On tables in what North Little Rock police call the “old duty room,” there were big bricks of marijuana - some the size of a small cabinet - and small bricks, large Ziploc bags packed with a pound of the stuff and small bags sealed around less. North Little Rock police estimated the total at 615 pounds. The thick, sweet odor drifted into the hallway.

Police and reporters made jokes about starting a raffle or bringing in Twinkies. Undercover detectives in civilian clothes joked together in the hall. Inside the room with all the marijuana, Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay and Saline County Sheriff Bruce Pennington shook hands and exchanged congratulations.

“We’re very proud of our people,” Bradley said.

The marijuana was not grown locally but did come from within the United States, Bradley said, declining to be more specific.

Bradley said he couldn’t remember a larger marijuana bust. But a lieutenant who works undercover - hence the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette will not identify him by name - said he recalled one or two warrants from 1993 or 1994 that netted a ton of the leafy, green drug.

“It’s part of my job to remember the big ones like that,” the lieutenant said. “At least until I get old and forget.”

Sgt. Terry Kuykendall, the department’s spokesman, used to work as a narcotics officer. He said his biggest marijuana haul was about 300 pounds.

Bradley said the department’s efforts did not end with Green’s arrest.

“The investigation is continuing and we very well may make more arrests,” the chief said.

Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/22/2010

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