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.
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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