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Canada Goose sale A federal inspection station on Interstate 10 in the West Texas desert earned the nickname “checkpoint of the stars” for all the entertainers who kept getting busted there. In the past six years, Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg, Nelly and Fiona Apple were all arrested for possession of marijuana. Canada Goose sale
These days, though, after a decision by a local lawman, everyone from personal pot smokers to medium size marijuana traffickers can avoid jail.
The Sierra Blanca Border Patrol checkpoint was once the bane of pot smokers driving from Los Angeles to Texas. Canada Goose Outlet Green suited federal agents and their uncanny drug dogs would make 20 to 30 busts a day. “The Border Patrol guys never would have found it if the dogs hadn’t sniffed it out.”
canada goose coats on sale Here’s how it canada goose store used to work: The Border Patrol would hold the suspect and the stash, the sheriff cheap Canada Goose in the sleepy town of Sierra Blanca would send a deputy out to pick them up, then they’d be booked into the jail in Hudspeth County an area larger than Connecticut filled with greasewood, cactus, humpbacked mountains and only 5,000 people. canada goose coats on sale
canada goose black friday sale Most of the cannabis holders were issued a citation, released and told to pay a $400 fine canadian goose jacket later though many never paid up. canada goose black friday sale
But for the canada goose past year, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West has refused to take any more “checkpoint cases,” even those involving commercial canada goose clearance sale quantities of marijuana worth thousands of dollars.
Canada Goose Outlet “I don’t have a problem whatsoever going out there and arresting them,” West says. “I just have a problem making my local taxpayers foot the bill for America’s problem. Canada Goose Jackets I’m not gonna do the federal government’s job.” Canada Goose Outlet
A Dispute Over Canada Goose sale Money, Not Justice
Canada Goose Jackets http://www.canadagoosecanadaoutlet.com West is a stout, swaggering lawman who has a sign over his office door that reads “Boss Hog.” Canada Goose Jackets
The checkpoint dispute is not about justice, it’s about money. The sheriff Canada Goose Parka says there were so many checkpoint cases they occupied two of his full time deputies and a fourth of the space in his county jail. This was OK as long as he was getting federal criminal justice grants, but those have dried up.
canada goose uk canada goose coats outlet “When I occupy one of those beds it takes away from a paying customer back there,” the sheriff says. canada goose uk outlet
uk canada goose outlet His jail is a moneymaker. Like a lot of poor Texas counties, Hudspeth built canada goose clearance an oversize jail so it can rent out excess space to other counties at $45 a night per prisoner. uk canada goose outlet
Canada Goose Online The fact that West won’t accept any checkpoint cases because he wants somebody to pay him for his prisoners rubs some people the wrong way. Canada Goose Online
Canada Goose Coats On Sale “What I wonder is why is it possible to arrest Willie Nelson and not anybody else?” asks Jaime Esparza, district attorney for El Paso and two neighboring counties. “Making sure your community is safe and prosecuting crime is not a profit making business. Department of Justice is less and less interested in low level possession cases. West says the Drug Enforcement Administration only gets involved when the amount is more than 40 to 50 pounds of marijuana. Canada Goose Coats On canada goose coats on sale Sale
Will Glaspy, special canada goose outlet agent in charge of the El Paso DEA, says if he decides to take a case, they have to send agents 85 miles to Sierra Blanca to pick up the suspects and the dope.
Canada Goose Parka “When we’re trying to be smarter with federal canada goose black friday sale resources, both from a law enforcement standpoint and a judicial standpoint, many of these cases just don’t belong in federal court,” Glaspy says. Canada Goose Parka
Massive Disparity In Prosecution
buy canada goose jacket For instance, when a person is busted for 35 pounds of marijuana in downtown Sierra Blanca such as it is he faces a second degree felony and prison time. But if that person gets caught with the same size load at the federal checkpoint, he walks unless there are Canada Goose online aggravating circumstances, such as a weapon involved. buy canada goose jacket
canada goose store The Border Patrol does not release numbers on individuals who have their canada goose deals narcotics confiscated and are not arrested. canada goose store
Hudspeth County is not alone. There’s a Border Patrol inspection station in Brooks County, Texas, that catches lots of narcotics coming out of the Rio Grande Valley. Brooks has such a tiny budget buy canada goose jacket cheap that it, too, refuses checkpoint cases.
Chris Cabrera, a Border Patrol union representative in the Rio Grande Valley, says traffickers caught with dozens of pounds of pot are routinely released, and they learn to exploit this loophole.
canadian goose jacket “That’s a shame when drug smugglers can walk free,” Cabrera says. “Granted, they lose their load, but they’re able to make it up the next day or the day after and find a different route. They adapt to our inability to do our job.” canadian goose jacket
Back at the Hudspeth County Jail, it’s not as exciting now that the tour buses are gone and there are no more famous mugshots.
buy canada goose jacket cheap “Why did Willie and Fiona have to pay their fines and go through the court system and these other people not?” West says. “The federal government is playing with people’s lives with selective prosecution.” buy canada goose jacket cheap.