A man was arrested after deputies say they found him driving under the influence while in possession of a gun, thousands of dollars in cash and marijuana.
Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) says just before 1 a.m. Friday, a deputy noticed a truck swerving as it traveled south down Highway 75.
The deputy pulled the truck over and the driver consented to a vehicle search.
“As the deputy was behind him crossing the line and sometimes that could just be someone nervous or messing with their phone, but when the deputy approached the window you see both a open container of alcohol, you smell marijuana emanating from the truck, so a lot of signs there to worry about the safety of this driver,” said TCSO Communications Director Casey Roebuck.
TCSO said the deputy found two open containers of beer, marijuana and over $9,000 in cash.
“You have large amounts of cash, over $9200, you have three vacuum sealed bags of marijuana stuffed into a trash bag in the vehicle and you have a gun located with the marijuana, so you know it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to surmise that perhaps there was some illegal drug trafficking going on in connection with this arrest,” Roebuck said.
The items were taken for evidence and the driver, 29-year-old Thia Leng Xiong, was arrested on multiple charges including DUI, possession of a firearm and drug offenses.
“When you have a deputy that is well trained and cues in on certain things it will tell that deputy that there is something more going on here than just perhaps an intoxicated driver, so even just a traffic arrest where somebody’s swerving can lead to a much bigger arrest,” Roebuck said.
Roebuck said it’s not fair for dispensaries that follow the law to have to compete against the black market.
“Small business owners that run these dispensaries that follow the law that are regulated and they’re competing against basically drug dealers who are buying these items on the black market and they’re not playing by the rules, they’re not only selling to card holders, they can sell to children, they can sell to whoever they want because they’re not following the regulations the state of Oklahoma put in place when we passed this legislation, so it’s not a fair game when you have small businesses owners competing against black market drug dealers,” Roebuck said.