Drug Bust On I-75

A drug bust on Interstate 75 lands one man in jail and pulls two popular drugs off the street. NewsChannel 9 has video of the bust from the dashboard camera of a Tunnel Hill police officer's car. Click to the right to see the video.

We asked Tunnel Hill's police chief why Segeant Scott Renau stopped the car driven by Leonard Hand, Jr.. Chief Roy Brunson says his drug interdiction officer often uses intelligence from other agencies. But not in this case, the officer stopped the out of state Durango, we're told for a traffic safety violation and found much more.

In the dashboard video, after Hand had changed his story, Sgt. Renau asks him, "I'm asking you, you're driving, Can I search the vehicle?" Hand responded, "I don't care." Sgt. Renau then asked, "Is that a yes?" Hand said, "Yes sir."

Sgt. Renau pulled Hand over just before 12:30 Tuesday morning just north of Exit 341 Northbound. In the dashboard video we obtained, you can see the officer pull him over. Chief Roy Brunson says his officer stopped him for tail gating. The dashboard video we saw starts after that reported traffic violation.

Meanwhile, Hand had no license, changed his story, then admitted he had some blunts, which are marijuana cigars. After the officer got consent to search, he found much more. We asked Chief Brunson with the amount of drugs found if Hand was a dealer. Chief Brunson said yes, adding, "In fact we've got him charged with trafficking because the amount that was there, there's certainly without a doubt."

Hand was on his way home to East Saint Louis. Sergeant Renau suspects he picked up four ounces of cocaine in Atlanta. They had been divided into plastic bags, about two ounces apiece. Then, Hand wrapped them in black plastic and hid them in his suitcase.

Hand's girlfriend and his two year old grandchild were also in the Durango. His girlfriend told the Sergeant she didn't know about the drugs. She breaks down when her boyfriend reveals there was more than cocaine inside his suitcase.

Police did not charge her and allowed her to take care of the baby. Everyday, furniture, food, gas and people go up and down I-75...but police say what you don't see is eye opening. Chief Brunson said, "Gosh it's huge. It's huge. There is I'm sure several million dollars a day in drugs that go up and down I-75."

Clearly I-75 is one of the busiest freeways in America. And with so many cars on it, we asked the chief if the element of racial profiling played into this stop. We asked specifically if Sgt. Renau could even see the driver at that time of the morning to make out his ethnicity. "Not until he had stopped him and got him out of the car," Chief Brunson said.

Leonard Hand, Junior remains in jail on a 200 thousand dollar bond for trafficking cocaine and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. To give you a point of reference for the amount of drugs on I-75, Sergeant Renau is Tunnel Hill's only drug interdiction officer. Chief Brunson says in the last year, he's seized more than THREE MILLION dollars worth of drugs.