interstate

The seizure of some 300 "bricks" of marijuana Thursday on Interstate 40 was the latest in a series of drug interdictions along the third longest highway in America.
In December, Okmulgee County deputies stopped a car and recovered 31 pounds of the illegal substance packed into jars.marijuana car
Earlier this month, three arrests were made in Amarillo, Tennessee and New Mexico involving marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine.
Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics spokesman Mark Woodward said I-40 is one of the favored routes for drug smugglers between both sides of America.
He said there is a growing market for the higher-grade marijuana grown in California and Colorado and shipped eastward.
pickup marijuana"That high-grade marijuana can be bought in California for $2,000 a pound and sold in New York for $6,500 to $7,000 a pound," he said Friday. "The legally-grown marijuana in California and Colorado has a higher level of THC, the key ingredient that gives the "high" associated with the drug.
In the case of the marijuana recovered by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol this week, Woodward said it probably came from Mexico and smuggled across the border. He explained the "bricks" that are wrapped in plastic is usually an indicator of smuggled drugs.
That marijuana generally has a lower street market value. It goes from $500 to $800 per pound near the border to $1,500 to $2,000 on the east coast.
In addition to marijuana making the trip down the Interstate, law enforcement officials are also seeing cocaine, methamphetamine, Mexican ICE, and now a new drug, kaht, when they  make arrests.
Kaht is a shrub native to East Africa and southern Arabia. It is seeing increased popularity because of its exotic origins.
Because I-40 is such a popular direct route for smugglers, law enforcement officials are concentrating more efforts there. "It is valuable real estate for the drug cartels," Woodward stated.
Complicating that effort are the other major highways, Interstate 25 in New Mexico and Colorado, interstate 35 running north and south through the middle of the country and US 69.
Those north-south highways offer easy distribution access for drugs coming into the US from Mexico.