(Memphis) Six pounds of marijuana is now on Mid-South streets after a botched sting operation.
Shelby County deputies thought they had their man, but he apparently passed off the pot before deputies closed in on him.
It seems the suspect caught on that authorities were onto him.
They say Victor Quarles was expecting a large delivery of pot from the postman.
Maintenance workers replaced his door Friday after it was kicked in by federal agents.
They were after Quarles who, they say, got a big delivery of marijuana.
Deputies captured Quarles after he ran through a field and onto Rockcreek Parkway.
His face in his mugshot shows it took some work to arrest him.
“The neighbors said they took him off in an ambulance,” said neighbor Brandon Wilson.
What authorities were really after got away.
Police say a six-pound shipment of pot addressed to Quarles’ apartment was sniffed out by a K9 at the Cordova post office.
The Metro Gang Unit set up a sting operation where they would stake out his apartment and swoop in when the postman made the delivery, but it didn’t happen like that because Quarles got suspicious.
Deputies say Quarles was standing on his third floor balcony and could see somebody, one of the detectives, watching him from down below and that’s when he asked what he was looking at.
The detective tried to play it off like he was lost, but they say Quarles knew something was up.
When the postman made the delivery, a witness says Quarles immediately passed the package of pot to someone driving a Hyundai.
Detectives at the time didn’t know that and kicked down Quarles door looking to make an arrest.
He wasn’t there, but they quickly caught up with him after a hunt.
“Some dogs running out in this field out here,” said Wilson.
The six pounds of weed, however, is still out there.
Quarles is facing a list of charges, including one for assault, because he allegedly tried to hurt a detective by throwing a cellphone at him.
His bond is set at $30,000.