Pasadena Man Charged With Carrying 23 Pounds of Pot on Bicycle
A Pasadena man now faces drug charges after being arrested carrying nearly two dozen pounds of marijuana while riding his bicycle, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Perhaps it was for personal use!
The 53-year-old man now faces major charges after being arrested one weekday recently around 2:30 a.m., the newspaper reports.
Our Pasadena criminal defense lawyers recognize the scrutiny being placed on the marijuana industry. There are many defendants who get arrested though they have a legal right to possess certain amounts of the drug for medicinal purposes.
Because of the recent political backlash against the industry, police throughout the state have placed extra scrutiny on the drug and those who may possess or attempt to sell it. While some people normally may not have been investigated under certain circumstances, it's possible they may now be looked at by officers.
In this case, police say they pulled the man over because he was riding his bicycle around 2:30 a.m. on Monterey Road. They say they pulled him over because he didn't have the required front light and rear reflector on his bike.
It sounds like an officer had nothing better to do than to bother a man who was riding on his bicycle. When they pulled him over, they allegedly found the marijuana -- 23 pounds of it -- inside a water cooler attached to the bike.
They arrested the man and charged him with suspicion of possessing and transporting marijuana for sale. He was being held at the Pasadena City Jail on $50,000 bail, the newspaper is reporting.
What must be looked at in a case like this is the reason for the search. Recent case law has shown that police must have a good reason for searching a vehicle, or in this case, a bicycle. They can't simply search a driver's vehicle without having a reason.
Some courts have said that if an officer is talking with a suspect who is nearby the vehicle they were stopped in, the officer has the right to search a center console area, under a seat or in the glove box to check for weapons to ensure their safety, but in a recent case, an officer searched a car and found cocaine after a suspect had been placed in another squad car. He was pulled over after allegedly soliciting a prostitute and officers discovered he had a warrant out for his arrest.
The appeals court ruled that the officer had no right to search the car after the suspect wasn't nearby and when there was no connection to the crime to warrant a search of the vehicle. Officers must play within the rules and when they break them, the defendant can benefit. But an experienced Pasadena criminal defense lawyer must be called on to discover these facts and help the suspect get a fair trial.
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As reported by FOX LA, the illicit ring was allegedly operated from a medical clinic where doctors gave Medicare prescriptions for the potent and dangerous painkiller for Medi-Cal, Medicare, and patients without insurance who demonstrated no medical necessity for the drug, said the U.S. Attorney's Office. The drug was acquired from pharmacies, in many counts by unlawfully sending bills to government insurance groups, while leaders of the ring are accused of re-selling the pills on the black market for millions of dollars in gain. 
