| A Sand Ridge, Calhoun County man was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in Beckley on charges he had 220 pounds of marijuana shipped from Texas to Dunbar.
The wholesale price of the shipment could be up to $350,000, depending on quality.
Larry T. Copen, 23, was arrested by Drug Enforcement Administration agents April 6 at the Yellow Freight Line terminal in Dunbar.
Federal agents say Copen had intent to sell it, although he told arresting officers he was picking up the shipment for someone else and was unaware of the amount of the shipment.
The DEA said it got a tip on April 2 that a shipment of marijuana would come to the freight depot on Roxalana Road in Dunbar from Laredo, Texas.
The shipment arrived April 4 in four cardboard boxes wrapped in a large piece of transparent film, according to DEA Agent Robert Negro.
Negro got a search warrant and reportedly found 220 pounds of marijuana. Agents performed a field test and the substance tested positive for marijuana, according to the affidavit.
Law enforcement officials watched the terminal. When Copen showed up in a rented brown pickup truck, he walked into the terminal and paid a clerk the $400 shipping cost, according to the affidavit.
Employees used a forklift to place the boxes on Copen's truck, after which he was arrested, the affidavit says.
Cohen is married with a 2-year-old daughter and works at Phillip and Sons Masonry in Orma.
He will be arraigned May 5 with a two-count indictment. It charges him with conspiracy to distribute more than 50 kilograms of marijuana and possession with intent to distribute more than 50 kilograms of marijuana.
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