State canine assists with local drug arrest

The new State Patrol canine recently helped Rock County Deputies seize 4.6 pounds of marijuana and 34 grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Three suspects from Michigan are now facing felony drug charges after they were arrested Sept. 9 at the Quality Inn on South Highway 75 in Luverne.
According to the criminal complaints filed last week in Rock County District Court, deputies were called to the hotel around 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9.
They arrived to find a hotel employee with an off-duty law enforcement officer from Jefferson, Iowa, who was staying at the hotel.
He told deputies he smelled burnt marijuana coming from Room 118, but occupants were currently in the lobby checking out.
Deputies questioned three individuals in the lobby about the marijuana, and the group moved over to a sitting area nearby.
When asked about their bags, one of the men said there was a little marijuana in the black bag on the table and agreed to let deputies search it.
In it was a mason glass jar with what appeared to be marijuana inside, and the men were patted down and asked to sit down
The males were identified as Jordan Damian Matti, 27, Joseph Daniel Patrico, 27, and Michael Benjamin Patrico, 25, all from the Rochester Hills area of Michigan.
They told deputies they were traveling from Michigan to Idaho to “subsistence farm and live off the land.”
In the bags were also zigzag rolling papers, grinders and plastic baggies, plus a vaporizer and two bottles containing liquid marijuana. A sealed white bag contained mushrooms.
The men were handcuffed and agreed to let deputies search their pickup and trailer.
At that point, Trooper Austin Christensen was called to have the State Patrol canine sniff the vehicle and trailer.
The dog hit on the rear left corner of the trailer where a garbage bag of marijuana was found.
The men were taken to the Law Enforcement Center and then to the Nobles County Jail, and the pickup and trailer were taken to the Rock County Law Enforcement Center where a search warrant was obtained to search them further.
Inside the pickup box under a locked cover officers located and seized 18 firearms stored in a separate area from the narcotics. Inside the trailer, a backpack was found with a number of garbage bags lined in it containing another 2.4 pounds of suspected marijuana.
The men spent the night apart from each other and the next day they were interviewed one at a time.
They all said they used marijuana for medical purposes and that they grow marijuana to sell to a dispensary in Michigan.
They said the mushrooms were given as a going away present, and they all admitted using marijuana and mushrooms together.
The street value of marijuana can be as much as $1,250 per pound, and the men said mushrooms cost roughly $7 per gram.
The men each face two counts of felony drug charges — fifth degree for marijuana and third degree for mushrooms. The maximum penalty for a conviction on the more serious charge is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine