This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
No need for drug suspects to confess, when you have Tess.
Washington County Sheriff's Deputy Sam Graf spotted a car drifting in traffic just before 2 a.m. Monday on northbound Interstate just south of St. George and pulled it over. And when he approached the vehicle and its two occupants, he detected what he thought was an odor of marijuana.
That's when Tess, a Belgium Malinois trained to sniff out drugs, put her nose to the task. Tess alerted to the presence of contraband, and during a subsequent search of the car, 56 pounds of marijuana were seized.
The driver, a Chicago man, and his passenger, a male from Gaithersburg, Md., were arrested. Both were booked into the Washington County jail on suspicion of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia, and having open containers of alcohol. The driver also was cited for a lane travel violation.
The men remained behind bars late Monday in lieu of more than $10,000 bond each, sheriff's spokeswoman Shauna Jones said.
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