Fwd: Police Find Half-Ton Pot Stash in Rialto (SB Sun June 9, 2007)

Police find half-ton pot stash in Rialto

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer San Bernardino County Sun

Article Launched:06/09/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

RIALTO - Police found a half-ton of marijuana at a house in the Las Colinas area of the city Friday. After receiving a call that there might have been narcotics activity at a house in the area, police arrived at 3422 N. Amberwood Ave. at about 5:30 p.m., said Rialto police Sgt. Andrew Karol. "It looked like a brick wall," Eddie Vargas, who lives down the street, said of the marijuana. Neighbors gathered to watch police as they lined the marijuana up in the front yard, he said. When police arrived, 24-year-old Armando Isaac Hernandez showed up with 350 pounds of marijuana in the back seats of his Ford Explorer, Karol said. Hernandez, who lives in Ontario, said he was just delivering the marijuana to the single- family house. "He looks just like a runner," Karol said of Hernandez. Karol said he doesn't know who was running the operation or who owns the house. When police entered, they found marijuana bricks stacked throughout the house, Karol said. The street value of the marijuana is about a half-million dollars, he said. It was packaged in different sizes and looked ready for sale, Vargas said. The marijuana was almost all there was inside the house. There wasn't even any furniture, Karol said. Before Friday, the house blended into the neighborhood, Vargas, 27, said. "You never noticed that house," he said. Hernandez was booked at the West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of transportation and sales of marijuana and of maintaining a drug house, Karol said. -------------------------------------------------- BS Ranch Perspective I just want to hand it to the Rialto Police Department to Rialto PD for keeping on top of everything and working to keep the neighborhoods clean even though they are still short handed from the Vote to Go to the Sheriff for Law Enforcement. It is going to take more time, but they will get the department all caught up on man power. With a Chief like Mark Kling in the Wheelhouse, things are right again. BS Ranch