State-Journal.com - 1,200 pounds of marijuana seized

Photo By Hilly SchifferA Kentucky State Police detective pulls out the last of the 320 packages containing marijuana that was confiscated Monday night in an investigation that started in January. The 1,229 pounds of marijuana originated in Mexico, stopped in Charleston, S.C., then went to Kendell’s Quick Lube in Lawrenceburg before making its final stop at Randy Kendell Sr.’s residence in Frankfort. The street value of the marijuana is estimated at $1.8 million.

Randy D. Kendall Sr.

Law officers seized more than 1,200 pounds of marijuana at the home of a Frankfort man Monday night - culminating an undercover operation that began in Mexico.

Randy D. Kendall, 49, was arrested without incident at his home at 6505 Flat Creek Road and charged with drug trafficking after officers followed the shipment, valued at nearly $2 million, on its lengthy journey.

Kentucky State Police spokesman Trooper Ronald Turley said KSP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Drug Enforcement Agency launched an investigation in late January and discovered that a large quantity of marijuana would be shipped to Lawrenceburg from Mexico.

The drugs arrived in Charleston Port, S.C., on a ship, where undercover ICE agents helped load the cargo onto a tractor-trailer and accompanied it on a controlled delivery to the suspect's business, Kendell's Quick Lube, 1505 Daniel Drive, in Lawrenceburg last Friday, Turley said.

KSP officers then joined the ICE agents and monitored activity around Kendall's shop.

"We spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday doing surveillance so we could make an arrest," Turley said during a Tuesday press conference at the KSP forensic lab on Sower Boulevard.

"It was a great job by investigators to pull this off without anyone getting hurt."

On Monday afternoon, suspects loaded the marijuana, which was sealed inside 320 separate bags of barium sulfate "a powdery chemical used to make plastic" onto a flatbed truck and delivered it to Kendall's Frankfort home.

Officers made the arrest later that night after watching Kendall and an accomplice, who police declined to name, transfer the drugs from the truck to a nearby barn.

Turley said authorities are not yet aware of what plans were in store for the drugs after their arrival at Kendall's home, though the investigation is ongoing.

"We do know this is 1,200 pounds of marijuana that will not reach the streets of Kentucky," he said.
More arrests related to the case are pending, and KSP is now working with the U.S Attorney General's office to determine if additional charges will be filed against Kendall.

Kendall is being housed in the Franklin County Regional Jail on a $10,000 full cash bond, which had not been posted Wednesday morning.

His preliminary hearing in Circuit Court will be Tuesday.