Search of Motor Home on Freeway Yields Cash, 40 Pounds of Marijuana

YORBA LINDA —  A California Highway Patrol officer who pulled over a speeding motorist on the Riverside Freeway Friday afternoon found 40 pounds of marijuana and more than $7,700 in cash in the man’s motor home, the CHP said.

CHP Officer Jim Storment arrested James Michael Catti, 39, of Los Osos on suspicion of possession of marijuana with the intent to sell.

Storment spotted a mobile home traveling about 70 m.p.h. in the westbound lanes of the Riverside Freeway just west of Green River Drive, said CHP Officer Angel Johnson.

As Storment questioned the driver, who was alone in the 1967 Chevrolet motor home, he detected a slight smell of what he believed was marijuana and asked Catti if he could enter the vehicle, Storment said.

Catti agreed, and after a brief search, Storment, a former narcotics officer, found one pound of marijuana in an ice box, he said.

Storment then called for backup officers and a drug-sniffing dog, which led officers to 39 more pounds of what was believed to be marijuana, wrapped in cellophane, in various places around the vehicle, he said.

Johnson said the estimated street value of the marijuana was about $38,000.

Officers also seized $7,730 in cash and a scale, Johnson said.

Catti was taken to the Orange County Jail.