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An Alabama man tried to fly from Portland International Airport to Colorado with more than seven pounds of marijuana, telling investigators he thought he was “fine” flying from one state where marijuana is legal to another where it’s legal, Multnomah County prosecutors allege.
Byron Ford, 44, was arrested Sept. 7, soon after U.S. Transportation Security Administration officials alerted Port of Portland police that they had found seven plastic, vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana, each about one pound, and another bag of what appeared to be marijuana concentrates while screening a bag that had been checked in for a flight to Denver and then on to Huntsville, Alabama.
One of the officers went to gate E6 to find the bags’ owner, read him his rights and asked him about the marijuana in his luggage, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s probable cause affidavit.
“Ford indicated he thought he was fine flying from one legal state to another legal state and that the 7 lbs of marijuana in his bag was for personal use,” the District Attorney’s office wrote.
Ford told police it would take him about half a year to use all the marijuana products he had bought.
Ford now faces one charge of unlawful import or export of a marijuana item, a class C felony. It is illegal to export marijuana products from Oregon.
— Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter. Do you have a story? Reach him at 971-373-2905; fzarkhin@oregonian.
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