Workers at the American Safety Razor blade plant in Verona opened a tractor-trailer delivery to find 80 boxes each holding 23 pounds of marijuana, 1,840 pounds in all with a street value of about $2 million.[1][2] Employees grew suspicious when barcodes on the boxes did not match the equipment order, and deputies found the load triple-wrapped in foil, brown shipping paper and plastic.[1][2]

Lieutenant Glenn Hanger said deputies did not believe anyone at the company was the intended recipient, and no arrests were made.[1] He said the marijuana likely originated in Mexico and travelled via the company’s plant in Knoxville, Tennessee, where it was probably swapped with legitimate equipment.[1] The Augusta County sheriff’s office called it the biggest marijuana seizure in the department’s history.[2]

By June the load still sat in a locked evidence room, its odour filling the space, because the office no longer used the county landfill for drug disposal and feared such a large March haul would tempt diggers if buried there.[2] Sheriff Randy Fisher said he had even offered the marijuana to a federal agency for training, which declined for lack of need.[2]