A California man admitted to transporting 30 pounds of marijuana hidden in a suitcase on board a plane.
Gerardo Delgadillo Jr., 22, pleaded guilty in federal court in Huntington, West Virginia on Monday, June 17, to possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute.
Prosecutors cited by The Associated Press said Delgadillo flew in October to Tri-State Airport in Kenova, West Virginia, with the marijuana in tow. Delgadillo said in court that he planned to sell the drug.
He faces up to five years in prison.
Police Find ‘Pot Nursery’ Hidden Under Toilet
In related news, police in the Netherlands posted a video on Twitter showing the entrance to a cannabis grow room they discovered beneath a toilet bowl in a Rotterdam bathroom.
The footage was posted on Oct. 17, 2018, but the bust took place the previous year. In the caption, police noted the creativity of the drug traffickers.
“That criminals are sometimes pretty inventive is clear from the video below. Last year, after a long search, we found a hemp farm at the premises of a business at the Sluisjesdijk,” wrote the Team Parate Eenheid Politie Rotterdam, a unit of the Dutch police, on Twitter.
After removing the toilet and part of the floor, police discovered a ladder leading to a cannabis nursery.
Police concluded the tweet with a joke that this particular toilet “turned out to be very well clogged.”
Dat criminelen soms behoorlijk inventief zijn blijkt wel uit onderstaand filmpje. Vorig jaar troffen we na lang zoeken een hennepkwekerij aan in een bedrijfspand aan de Sluisjesdijk. De toegang bleek erg goed verstopt.. ^MK #hennep #drugs #rotterdam #police #politie @POL_Charlois pic.twitter.com/63G3bKcwyT
— Team Parate Eenheid (@teamparaatheid) October 17, 2018
Sluisjesdijk, the location identified in the tweet, is a street in Rotterdam’s Waalhaven District, an area that includes the port and various industrial sites.
Waalhaven has been the site of numerous drug busts and officials have warned of increased smuggling in Rotterdam.
According to the NL Times, on June 28, 2017, investigators found 107 kilograms (235 pounds) of cocaine packed in shrink-wrapped bundles at a Waalhaven business. The drug bundles had been hidden in a false ceiling in a container.
High-Potency Cannabis Linked to Psychosis
Researchers examining data from 11 European cities say high-potency cannabis may cause psychosis.
The research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, found that daily cannabis use, particularly of high potency cannabis, is strongly linked to the risk of developing psychosis.
Psychosis is a medical condition characterized by hallucinations and delusions—distinct from hearing voices, paranoia, or mind-altering effect of being high on drugs.
“Observational studies and biological evidence support a causal link between cannabis use and psychosis,” said a statement from Kings College London. “But until now, it has been unclear whether, at a population level, patterns of cannabis use influence rates of psychosis.”
The link was particularly marked in the cities of London and Amsterdam, where “skunk” is smoked at much higher levels than other European cities.
In London, a third of psychosis cases are the result of smoking skunk, according to the study. In Amsterdam, it is half.
Cannabis with a THC content of 14 percent or higher makes up 94 percent of the drug sold on the streets of London.
“We’ve got a problem with potency,” Nick Hickmott from the British drug and alcohol charity Addaction told the BBC. “People who regularly take lots of high strength cannabis are at risk of potentially serious harm. It can be particularly harmful for younger, developing brains.
“Once adjusted for other factors, the authors found that across the 11 European sites, people who used cannabis on a daily basis were three times more likely to have a diagnosis of first episode psychosis, compared with people who had never used cannabis,” said the KCL statement. “This increased to five times more likely for daily use of high potency cannabis.”
Lead author Dr. Marta Di Forti said in a statement, “Our findings are consistent with previous studies showing that the use of cannabis with a high concentration of THC has more harmful effects on mental health than the use of weaker forms.”
Simon Veazey contributed to this report.
