Florida man busted with 75 pounds of pot during a layover at O’Hare, prosecutors say

A Florida man flying from San Diego to Manchester, England, was arrested during a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after police found 75 pounds of pot in his luggage, prosecutors said.

Ralph Roman | Chicago Police Department

Chicago police received a tip from “reliable law enforcement” that Ralph Roman was carrying a large amount of cannabis on the plane, prosecutor LeRoy Martin III said during a bond hearing Saturday afternoon.

Officers allegedly found 34,000 grams of suspected cannabis in Roman’s belongings at O’Hare on Friday.

He has never been arrested before, but he is now charged with unlawful possession of more than 5,000 grams of cannabis.

Judge Ankur Srivastava told Roman that the volume of cannabis “suggests to me you were involved in some very high-level trafficking.” He ordered Roman to pay a $2,000 deposit toward bail to get out of jail. Srivastava gave him permission to return to Florida while the case is pending.

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About Tim Hecke 5786 Articles
Tim Hecke is CWBChicago's managing partner. He started his career at KMOX, the legendary news radio station in St. Louis. From there, he moved on to work at stations in Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City. Tim went on to build syndicated radio news and content services that served every one of America's 100 largest radio markets. He became CWBChicago's managing partner in 2019. He can be reached at tim@cwbchicago.com