Couple accused of having 60 pounds of weed for ‘presents’ are pulled over, jailed again

Last month, sheriff’s deputies in Nebraska who stopped an elderly California couple said they found 60 pounds of marijuana in their truck. The couple said the pot was for Christmas gifts.

On Tuesday, the couple — Patrick Jiron, 80, and his wife, Barbara Jiron, 70 — got jailed in Nebraska again, this time for suspicion of possessing more than $18,000 in drug money, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.

And just like last month, their troubles began with a traffic stop.

This time, authorities said, their 42-year-old daughter was behind the wheel.

Sheriff’s deputies pulled over a black 2016 Toyota Tacoma heading west on Interstate 80 Tuesday morning in Lancaster County for following another vehicle too closely, according to the police report reviewed by the Journal Star.

The deputy asked Mariah Jiron, the driver, to get out and take a seat in his cruiser.

“During this time, reasonable, articulable suspicion was obtained that criminal activity was afoot,” the deputy wrote in the report, which was not specific about what gave him pause.

Patrick and Barbara Jiron, who were passengers in the truck, did not give the deputy permission to search the vehicle, according to the report.

“A K-9 was deployed and alerted to the presence of drugs,” Lancaster County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jason Mayo told the Omaha World-Herald.

The dog indicated that it smelled drugs in the truck. Deputies reportedly found most of the $18,000 they confiscated — it smelled strongly of marijuana, Mayo said — in a duffel bag in the cargo area.

The couple signed an abandonment form stating they don’t claim the money as their own, Mayo said.

Deputies also found an oversized garbage bag in the back of the truck that contained raw marijuana residue, and notes that suggested pot sales transactions, according to the police report.

The Jirons were taken to the county jail. Their daughter, who lives in Vermont, was given a warning, local media reported.

The husband and wife, who live in Clearlake Oaks, Calif., are by now familiar with Nebraska correctional accommodations.

They were pulled over in a traffic stop on Dec. 19 on Interstate 80 in York County, Neb.

Patrick Jiron was driving then, and authorities stopped him for going over the center line and failing to signal.

Deputies reported smelling “the odor of raw marijuana coming from the vehicle,” reported The York News-Times.

They said Patrick Jiron allowed them to search the truck, and they found pot, estimated to be worth more than $300,000, under a topper in the back of the Tacoma.

The Jirons allegedly said the marijuana was for Christmas presents for family and friends.

They told authorities they were driving to Vermont and didn’t know it was illegal to transport pot through the Cornhusker state.

York County Sheriff’s Lt. Paul Vrbka told the News-Times that Barbara Jiron was cited but was not jailed at that time “due to some medical issues.”

Patrick Jiron was taken into custody and booked on charges of possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver and having no drug tax stamp.

Their story took a twist when it later became public that their son, Justin Jiron, is a deputy state’s attorney in Vermont.

His boss issued a statement saying he had nothing to do with what his parents were accused of and that he was “extremely disappointed in their behavior and actions.”

Both Jirons paid 10 percent of their $2,500 bail Tuesday and were released, the World-Herald reported. They have a joint court hearing related to the first case next week.

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Couple accused of having 60 pounds of weed for ‘presents’ are pulled over, jailed again."