Authorities say the drugs in the truck had a street value between $2,000 and $4,000.
A California ice cream truck was selling much more than just innocent summer treats when authorities caught up with it earlier in the week, alleging that the truck was a front for a drug-dealing business.
Inside the Long Beach truck, cops found a bag of methamphetamine, marijuana in mason jars and small baggies, a box of sandwich bags, a scale, cash and a gun, according to The Long Beach Post. While it wasn’t clear whether the truck was actually selling ice cream, police say that its main purpose was to be a cover for drug sales.
The truck’s operators, George Sylvester Williams, 57, and Monti Michael Ware, 41, were arrested on Sunday afternoon. Williams is being held on $30,000 bail, and Ware is being held on $50,000 bail because he is also facing charges for possessing a gun while dealing drugs and possessing a gun as an ex-felon.
The Long Beach Police Department announced the arrest of the men, both from Long Beach, on Twitter.
Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Arantxa Chavarria said that the drugs in the truck had a street value between $2,000 and $4,000.
This isn’t the first time that an ice cream truck has been used for cover for an illicit business. In June, authorities in Conyers, Georgia, arrested an ice cream truck driver after a teenager reported that the man was trying to break into a mailbox. When police caught up with the driver, 19-year-old Cameron Callaway, they found marijuana, scales and a gun inside the truck.
“He could very well have been selling marijuana out of the ice cream truck,” said Conyers police Sgt. Kim Lucas.
Neighbors said that they were not surprised, since the truck’s driver hadn’t exactly been inconspicuous.
“What ice cream man delivers ice cream at six in the morning, three in the morning?” said Jerri Rogers, who called police after her daughter saw the driver breaking into the mailbox. “My kids have been telling me, ‘He sells dope.’”
In 2014, another California ice cream truck driver was arrested after reportedly trying to sell methamphetamine to a customer. Kelly Brown, 62, was taken into custody after a witness called police and said, “The ice cream [truck] driver just tried to sell me some drugs,” according to The Huffington Post.
There have also been reports of ice cream truck drivers in Maryland and New York trying to use their vehicles to sell illicit drugs.
