Officer finds over 300 pounds of marijuana during traffic stop, documents say

ECHO, Summit County — Two men were arrested on Saturday after a traffic stop revealed they were transporting over 300 pounds of marijuana on Interstate 80 in Echo Canyon.

A probable cause statement for the incident said a Utah Highway Patrol officer pulled over a white Chevy pickup truck with Iowa plates for expired registration tags. The officer made contact with the two men inside, identified in the statement as 56-year-old Michael Lee Giles and 45-year-old Lee Scott Kalkofen, then “became suspicious of criminal activity,” the statement said.

Giles, who was driving the truck, consented to having the officer bring his police dog around the car. The dog alerted on the truck, then the officer conducted a probable cause search, the statement said. The officer then found several large duffel bags in the bed of the truck filled with one-pound bags of marijuana.

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The officer arrested Giles and Kalkofen, and then continued searching the truck. He found a total of approximately 336 pounds of raw marijuana, as well as “numerous vacuum-sealed packages containing marijuana edibles and other assorted marijuana products,” the statement said.

Police booked Giles and Kalkofen into Summit County Jail on suspicion of marijuana possession over 100 pounds and arranged distribution of controlled substances, both felonies.