On Thursday afternoon, a Charles County Sheriff’s sergeant stopped a tractor-trailer in the parking lot of the La Plata Wal-Mart for failing to display a proper tag.
La Plata Police commercial inspection units were called to the scene based on initial observations by the officer. Police were joined on the scene by a couple apparently undercover officers, according to a witness account, who were driving seemingly ordinary vehicles, and sporting beards and long hair.
Charles County Sheriff’s public information officer Kristen Timko could not confirm that any other agencies were also on the scene.
A Charles County Sheriff’s K-9 unit was called to the scene, which made a positive “hit” on the vehicle for drugs.
The incident continued for several hours, and hundreds of cases marked “lettuce” were unloaded by forklift into the parking lot. Timko said no drugs were located in the vehicle.
“That doesn’t mean there weren’t ever any drugs in there,” Timko said. “They just didn’t find any.”
The driver was issued a warning for the tag from Charles deputies, and traffic citations from the vehicle inspection by La Plata Police.
See slideshow below for images from the scene. The Bay Net photos by Rick Cleaveland.