PORT ANGELES — Acting on a citizen’s tip, authorities on Thursday morning arrested a Canadian man east of the city and confiscated an estimated 200 to 300 pounds of “B.C. Bud” marijuana from his vehicle.
The man, identified as Tighe O. Mason, 26, of Victoria, is suspected of smuggling the marijuana and offloading it in the Pillar Point area, Clallam County Sheriff’s Capt. Ron Cameron said.
Mason was arrested for investigation of possessing marijuana with the intent to deliver, and his case has been forwarded to the county Prosecutor’s Office for charging.
Investigators with the Sheriff’s Department and Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team, or OPNET, were called to the Pillar Point area Thursday morning after someone reported seeing a Zodiac-type inflatable boat unloading in the area, Cameron said.
The citizen also described a white van in the area, and that information was relayed to Peninsula law enforcement agencies
While authorities investigated the Pillar Point shore, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer stopped a white van on U.S. Highway 101 near Wal-Mart, east of Port Angeles, and found one person in the van wearing a wet suit, Cameron said.
The officer could see several large hockey bags inside the van.
OPNET investigators obtained a search warrant and found six of the large duffel-type bags containing marijuana vacuum-sealed in plastic bags, Cameron said.
The B.C. Bud, a high-grade marijuana, is valued in the Port Angeles area at about $3,000 a pound, he said.
Investigators did not locate the inflatable boat.
The bust is the fourth in Clallam County since January, when 10 people — all believed to be Canadians — were arrested in three separate incidents.
