Traffic stop leads authorities to six pounds of marijuana

Authorities say a pound of marijuana was found inside Andrew Kugler's car when he ran a red light and an additional five pounds were found in his College Park home, the same house where police discovered 50 pounds of pot two years ago.
The 33-year-old College Park man was pulled over Aug. 3 after blowing through a red light to turn right from University Boulevard onto Metzerott Road, a few blocks from the University of Maryland on a route Kugler might travel to his home at 9130 Bridgewater St., court records show. Attorney information for Kugler was not listed in court records. Kugler was on probation for the two-year-old arrest when he was pulled over.
In 2007, Kugler nearly lost the house after a police raid discovered 50 pounds of marijuana in the basement and $177,215 in cash secreted throughout the house, court documents filed in Maryland's federal court said. The drug was held inside 84 mason jars labeled with "different flavors such as blueberry, big red, $four-hundred$, haze, silver, blue, strawberry, grape and numerous other flavors," documents said. At the time, Kugler reportedly told officials he had been selling marijuana since he was 12 years old.
In January 2008, Kugler pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute, was sentenced to six months behind bars and then released on three years' probation, Maryland court records show. Simultaneously, federal authorities filed a lawsuit demanding that the house be forfeited to the U.S. government, but in a March 2008 agreement authorities accepted $25,000 in lieu of the property.
According to court documents, the University of Maryland police officer who pulled him over could smell marijuana in the car. The officer asked Kugler whether he had marijuana, and Kugler handed over a small plastic bag with a substance suspected to be pot inside. A subsequent search of his gold Subaru revealed a large plastic bag containing a little more than one pound of the drug. Federal agents who searched his Bridgewater Street house later that day found more than five pounds of pot and $30,000 in the basement.
Kugler has once again been charged with possession with intent to distribute, and federal authorities have once again filed a lawsuit demanding his house be forfeited.