Huge pot bust worth half a million dollars in Rockdale County

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. - Rockdale County Sheriff's investigators said they pulled half a million dollars’ worth of pot off the streets. Authorities said the marijuana was trucked in from Los Angeles.

The Rockdale Narcotics Vice Unit said they got a tip and acted fast. Within 4 hours of learning about a huge shipment of drugs coming in, authorities said they found the marijuana inside a truck at Clarke and Clarke Trucking on Farmers Road in Conyers.

Inside the vehicle, investigators said they found 160 pounds of pot tightly wrapped in orange cellophane and packed in a crate. Authorities said it was trucked across the country, from California to Rockdale County.

"We found out it was coming here and wanted to end the problem right here," said Michael Meyers with the Rockdale County Sheriff's Office.

Marlon Clarke was arrested. He is charged with drug trafficking.

Investigators said this is no small haul.

"Anytime you can get drugs off the street it's great, but when you get this amount of drugs off the street it's astounding, it's amazing," said Meyers.

Tim Vaughn works just down the road. He hopes having this kind of illegal activity in the area doesn't hurt business.

"My customers don't want to come here if they know what's going on down the road," said Vaughn.

But he's also thankful cops got it when they did, before it hit the streets.

"My kids are right at the age of peer pressure, so it's a good thing they get it out of here," said Vaughn.