Sacramento weed smugglers fly United

It was a Saturday morning and Jay Brown had already found his seat on an airplane bound for Wichita, Kansas. But the 23-year-old Sacramento man would never make it to his intended destination.

As the plane thrummed on the concourse at Sacramento International Airport, a different pre-flight preparation was taking place.

According to information from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, TSA screeners were rifling through two large suitcases Brown allegedly checked at the United Airlines ticket counter before he passed through the security checkpoint and boarded his plane. Inside the luggage, employees with the Transportation Security Administration reportedly discovered 20 vacuum-sealed bags busting with 22 pounds worth of leafy cannabis. Brown was escorted off the plane and charged with transporting marijuana for sale, records show.

The November 18 arrest was one of five marijuana seizures at Sacramento International Airport in three weeks. Since September 30, authorities have seized at least 107 pounds of cannabis headed for parts undisclosed, according to a review of booking logs.

But lest you think this is the result of stricter TSA guidelines or the looming legalization of recreational weed in California, at least one local law enforcement official says the recent cluster of high-weight airport busts isn’t out of the ordinary.

“I think you can look at the country, at what’s happening around the nation, and see that it’s a pretty common occurrence,” said Sgt. Shaun Hampton, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department. Hampton suggested a review of airport seizures over previous years would show a consistent strain of activity. “I wouldn’t [expect to] see a spike,” he added.

In the five seizures SN&R examined, at least four of the suspects allegedly concealed their contraband in checked luggage that was discovered by bag checkers. Two of the arrested suspects lived outside of California, while at least two were flying United Airlines. Only one of the suspects was over the age of 26.

It’s unclear how much marijuana passes through Sacramento International Airport undetected. An airport spokeswoman referred questions to TSA, which didn’t respond to requests for comment. In April, the TSA briefly said on its website that it would allow passengers to carry on medically-prescribed marijuana before reversing course the following day.

Most arrests that happen at Sacramento International are for public drunkenness, booking logs show. “Yeah, we get a lot of that out there as well,” Hampton said.

As California prepares for a new year in which recreational marijuana is legal, the demand for black-market weed remains strong outside of the state, experts have maintained.

On November 19, it was James M. Everette who was waiting to board an airplane that would take the Sacramento resident out of the state while two checked suitcases stuffed with 20 pounds of marijuana were intercepted by authorities, the Sheriff’s Department states. The 21-year-old was booked into jail for transporting marijuana, but is no longer in custody, records show.