COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation seized 233 pounds of marijuana and 100 kilos of cocaine in two days in Cobb County.
The GBI says agents discovered the cocaine, valued at $3 million, hidden in compartments of a tractor trailer parked at a Quality Inn off Franklin Road in Marietta.
Channel 2’s Liz Artz talked James Wilson, who lives in a neighboring extended stay motel with his wife and three children, about the bust.
“The volume of what they found surprises me, yeah. I didn't think they were making that much money over here. I thought people were just hustling to get by and buy fancy cars,” Wilson said.
Wilson told Artz the area is known for drug dealers and buyers.
“This is an ideal place to meet and sell whatever it is you're selling, or get whatever it is you're getting, and get out of dodge,” Wilson said.
Wilson said police are aware of the illegal activity that goes on in the one block radius around Delk and Franklin Roads. The area has easy access to Interstate 75.
“There's not a day that goes by where (police are) not at one of these hotels and they're making a significant amount of busts there,” Wilson said.
In the most recent bust, police arrested Fernando Rodriguez, Jesus Rosillo, and Javier Rodriguez Buitrago and charged them with drug trafficking and conspiracy in connection with the cocaine charges.
Jerhone Henry and Mortes Tingling were also arrested, and are in the Cobb County Jail. They were arrested near a Cracker Barrel that shares a parking lot with the Quality Inn. The two men got arrested the day before on trafficking charges. Artz pulled their criminal warrants, which stated they had 233 pounds of marijuana in the back of a car. Agents say they left Yellow Freight with11 bundles of marijuana totaling 233.5 pounds.
"The only thing that surprises me is the amount. I didn't know they were getting it that good," Wilson told Artz.
The GBI says two of the suspects in the cocaine arrest were from out of state. Ferrando Rodriquez, 39, is from Gary, Indiana, and Jesus Ruben Rosillo, 50, is from McAllen, Texas. Police say Javier Leonardo Rodriguez-Buitrago, 24, is from Dacula.
WSBTV
