
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 41-year-old Edmond man with a New York driver’s license has been ordered to appear in court on Feb. 3 on a charge of trafficking more than 25 pounds of marijuana in Ripley where he was stopped by a Payne County sheriff’s deputy for allegedly failing to stop for a stop sign on SH 108 S.
Kang Lin, who was released from the Payne County Jail on $20,000 bail the day after his arrest, could be given as much as a 20-year prison term and a $100,000 fine if convicted of drug trafficking, court records show.
Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy William Bowen, who is assigned to the town of Ripley, alleged in an affidavit that he was sitting stationary in a patrol car at Morton (SH 108 S) and Main Street in Ripley at 2:40 pm on Aug. 1, 2024, when he saw a black Ford 150 quad cab truck slow but not stop for the stop sign.
When the deputy approached the vehicle driven by Lin, who indicated that he spoke little English, the deputy detected the odor of marijuana, the affidavit alleged.
“I returned to my patrol car and retrieved my department-issued cellphone and began using Google translate to communicate with Lin,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
Typing that he could smell the odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle, the deputy asked Lin “to open the bed of the truck, as that is where I was smelling it coming from,” the affidavit alleged.
When Lin opened the tailgate, “I observed a large black trash bag in the bed of the truck. I indicated for Lin to open it, and he did. Inside I observed multiple vacuum sealed bags containing a green substance I believed to be marijuana,” the deputy alleged in his affidavit.
“I then asked Lin if he had a license to transport marijuana, and he said no. I then told Lin he was under arrest.
“There were 25 bags, and the total weight of them was 26.75 pounds,” the deputy alleged in his affidavit. A green nugget removed from one of the bags field-tested as marijuana, the affidavit alleged.