82 pounds of Mexican candy in trunk ‘felt granular.’ That’s because it wasn’t candy, Alabama cops say

At first glance, it looked like the Tennessee man had quite the sweet tooth.

During a traffic stop last week southwest of Birmingham, Alabama, deputies asked the man they had pulled over for permission to search his vehicle for drugs, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

James Robert Fields, the 56-year-old driver from Memphis, agreed to the March 29 search, deputies said.

After deputies opened up his Honda’s trunk, they discovered a large bag that was filled with a bunch of smaller bags. The bags weighed 82 pounds altogether and appeared to contain Mexican candy, the sheriff’s office said.

But then deputies realized “the candy felt granular.” When deputies peered inside the bags, they learned it wasn’t candy they were handling: It was methamphetamine — and a whole lot of it, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies estimated the 82-pound illegal haul was worth nearly $1.5 million.

“That’s a good amount of a terrible drug that didn’t make it to the streets, along with all the crime that goes hand in hand with it,” Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale told the Birmingham News. “It’s not unusual to see a meth user stay up two or three days on a crime spree of burglaries, thefts and robberies to keep funding the next fix.”

Fields was arrested on charges of trafficking methamphetamine, according to Jefferson County Jail records.

He was taken to the jail early in the morning on March 30, jail records said, and is being held there on $250,000 bond.

This story was originally published April 4, 2018 at 4:39 PM with the headline "82 pounds of Mexican candy in trunk ‘felt granular.’ That’s because it wasn’t candy, Alabama cops say."