Police say man ordered marijuana online, had it shipped through mail
WHITEVILLE, Tenn. — The United States Postal Service sifts through thousands of pieces of mail each day.
Sometimes, a certain package will catch an employee’s eye.
“They’re watching the mail, they’re watching the locations where it’s coming in at, and anytime they get anything suspicious, they call and notify us,” Lt. Ben Davis with the Whiteville Police Department said.
Lt. Davis said that’s what happened when Johnnie Tate ordered marijuana from a dealer in California who sent him the drugs by mail.
“He advised us that there was marijuana in the vehicle, actually in the package that he had just picked up from the post office,” Tate said.
Whiteville Police Chief Steven Stanley says many people with medical marijuana licenses are ordering the drugs, then selling them illegally on their own websites.
“People go to that website, and then people can go to it and illegally order and obtain it,” Stanley said.
Chief Stanley said even in states where marijuana is legal, buying it and selling it online, then sending it in the mail, is not.
“They’re abusing the system that’s created for those who legitimately have a prescription for marijuana,” Stanley said.
While one buyer is now off the streets in Hardeman County, Chief Stanley says there’s still more to go.
“Just because we got one person doesn’t mean that’s the only person we’re looking at,” he said.
Tate faces drug possession charges and is being held in the Hardeman County Criminal Justice Complex.
