DENVER — Two truck drivers accused of drug trafficking have been temporarily freed after a month in an Oklahoma jail.
An attorney for Farah Warsame, 33, and Tadesse Deneke, 51, confirmed to Next with Kyle Clark that the jail in Osage County released his clients on Friday.
Police pulled them over on Jan. 9 for allegedly running a red light. Officers then found about 20,000 pounds of what they suspected was marijuana inside the truck. Both men were arrested along with the shipment’s security guards, Andrew Ross, from Aurora, and David Dirksen, from Michigan.
All four men contend they were hauling legal hemp from Kentucky to a company in Louisville, Colo.
Ross and Dirksen left the jail on bond a week after the arrest.
Lab results showed that most samples of the product tested near the legal limit for hemp. By law, hemp can only have 0.3 percent THC, the component in marijuana that makes users high. The shutdown of the federal government delayed the release of those results, which Next obtained this week.
The attorney for the truck drivers, Trevor Reynolds, said Friday he was taking his clients to get food, and he wanted to find them plane tickets home to Cleveland.
Reynolds told Next earlier this week that his clients, who do not speak English as a first language, didn’t understand why they were kept in jail for doing their jobs. The 2018 Farm Bill allows for hemp to be transported across state lines. The head of Panacea Life Sciences in Louisiville told Next he placed the order for hemp months ago.
Warsame and Deneke were released on their own recognizance, meaning they did not pay any money but promised to return to Osage County for court dates.
The charges against all four men have not been dropped. Another test on the substance is planned and will likely happen in Colorado.
Ross came home to Colorado after his release.
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