Man Dies While Unloading $12 Million Worth of Marijuana: Police

Norcross, GA — A Connecticut man dropped dead in an Atlanta suburb this week while unloading $12 million worth of marijuana, police said.

Gwinnett County Police officers on Monday responded to a call on Best Friend Road in Norcross saying that a man was slumped over near a white van and a tractor trailer. When they arrived, the officers found a man's body kneeling on the ground next to the van, with his head lying on a step leading into the van's side door.

The deceased would later be identified as Johnny Taylor, 31, of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

While waiting for a medical examiner, officers noticed the smell of marijuana coming from the van, police said in a news release. When they entered the van, an officer opened a box and found sealed bags of marijuana inside. Similar boxes also were found inside the back of the tractor trailer.

After a search warrant was obtained for the two vehicles, police found what they said was several hundred pounds of marijuana, with a street value of about $12 million.

Security footage of the area, home to several businesses including a TV and movie production studio, showed a man dropping off the tractor trailer on Sunday at around 9:30 p.m., then leaving in a car. Shortly after the tractor trailer is dropped off, someone is seen pulling up in the white van and parking it next to the tractor trailer.

Police were still trying to identify the people in the videos on Wednesday and did not know if Taylor is one of the people shown.

They say all signs point to Taylor having died of natural causes. There were no signs of trauma to his body, the news release said.

Photo courtesy Gwinnett County Police Department