SAVANNAH. Ga. -- Authorities seized about 10 tons of marijuana at a deserted shack Saturday and arrested eight people, including a State Patrol sergeant, an offical of the Department of Natural Resources and a former police chief.
Sheriff Jim Randall said officers also seized two state cars, a truck, several other vehicles and two .357 Magnum pistols.
He said Sgt. Russell Hardin of the State Patrol and Sgt. Larry Adams of the DNR' law enforcement division were arrested about an hour after the early morning seizure at a deserted shack near the Effingham-Chatham County line.
Hardin and Adams were suspended and officials indicated they would take steps to have them fired Monday.
Others arrested were identified as former Thunderbolt Police Chief Grady Braddock; Michael Robert Eltovic III, 20; Carol Barrett Zeigler, 31; Lawrence Harn, 26, and Jerry Zeigler, all of Savannah, and James Ingram, 38, of Thunderbolt.
Randall said all the suspects will be arraigned Monday.
He said the arrests were made after he and three deputies and several agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation moved in on a refrigerator-type truck parked outside an abandoned shack. He said the pot was in 40- to 60-pound bails.
Randall said he was acting on a tip but refused to elaborate.