Harford Officers Find Marijuana, Loaded Guns, Checkbooks, IDs During Traffic Stop

HARFORD COUNTY, MD — Wednesday night, Harford County sheriff's deputies stopped a car after they saw the driver make several traffic violations.

When deputies approached the vehicle, they smelled marijuana coming from inside the car, the sheriff's office reported. Deputies then carried out a probable cause search of the vehicle and found two loaded handguns with scratched serial numbers and 10 loose rounds of ammunition. They also found 286 grams of marijuana and several IDs and checkbooks that didn't belong to anyone in the vehicle.

The driver, who was can't have any guns, was arrested. A passenger also was arrested on three open warrants.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office noted on a Facebook post that if the traffic stop had been done after July 1, officers wouldn't have been able to search the vehicle based off officers' smelling marijuana.

"After July 1, pro-criminal Maryland legislature passed a law taking away law enforcement's ability to search a car for the smell of marijuana. After July 1, those guns would still be in the hands of criminals," the sheriff's office said.