Published: November 09, 2005 12:50 am      

$60,000 in pot seized

NEW BALTIMORE — Two Jamaican nationals are in the Somerset County Jail after state police said they seized $60,000 worth of marijuana and a stolen handgun from their BMW sport utility vehicle.

Jermain George Williams, 28, of West Mifflin, Allegheny County, and Alixe Jermaine Patterson, 29, of New York, were stopped shortly before midnight Monday on the turnpike.

Their SUV had illegal tinted windows, state police Sgt. Anthony DeLuca said in a court document.

The BMW X5 was pulled over at milepost 123 in Allegheny Township.

Armed with a search warrant, troopers found 30 pounds of pot stashed inside in a green suitcase in a rear compartment, DeLuca said.

They also recovered a loaded .45-caliber Colt pistol that had been reported stolen in Pittsburgh.

The men were traveling from New York to Pittsburgh when Williams’ vehicle was stopped, DeLuca said.

The toll road is considered a major drug pipeline to Pittsburgh from cities along the East Coast, and often is the scene of major heroin, cocaine and marijuana busts in the mountains of Somerset County.

Last year, state police at the turnpike barracks in the county seized more than $4 million worth of drugs, guns, jewelry and other contraband.

Most of the busts began with relatively minor stops for speeding through con-struction zones, tinted windows that areillegal in Pennsylvania, objects hanging from rearview mirrors and even brakingtoo hard coming out of the Allegheny Tunnels.

It’s unclear where Williams and Patterson fit into the hierarchy of the drug trade. DeLuca said the Jamaicans also could face federal drug charges.

The U.S. National Immigration Customs Enforcement and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency are continuing the investigation, he added.

Williams and Patterson were arraigned Tuesday by District Judge William Roush of Boswell on drugs and weapons charges.

They were sent to the Somerset County Jail after failing to post bond.