Officers confiscated the packages and took them back to the Northeastern District station for processing. The opened box weighed 38 pounds, while the others weighed in at 45, 55 and and 60 pounds - for a total of 198 pounds.
Looking for help on the case, the officers contacted a city detective who serves on Baltimore's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area federal task force. Later that day, they tried to deliver the packages but were unsuccessful, the documents state.
The next day, a man who claimed to be the intended recipient of the packages called FedEx to ask about the status of his delivery. But a state trooper - posing as a FedEx employee - picked up the phone. The man told the trooper that his packages had not been delivered. The trooper told him they would arrive later that same day, between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., police charging documents state.
About 2 p.m., a city police detective posing as a FedEx delivery truck driver pulled up in front of the address marked on the package: an office in the 3400 block of Belair Road.
As the detective stepped out of the truck holding one of the four packages, a man approached, stopped him and said: "That's my box," according to police. The man signed the FedEx receipt and then turned to walk away. A team of officers waiting in cars nearby swooped in and arrested him, according to police charging documents.
Gwatidzo, 30, was charged Thursday with possession of a large quantity of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, along with other drug-related charges. He is being held at the Central Booking and Intake Center on $1 million bail.
Police served search and seizure warrants at two addresses - the T. Ryan Art Institute in the 3400 block of Belair Road and a residence in the 10200 block of S. Dolfield Road in Owings Mills - where Gwatidzo allegedly received large packages of marijuana via two FedEx shipments recently, Hess said. In total, detectives seized eight more boxes that contained 398 pounds of marijuana from those locations, Hess said.
More charges could be lodged against Gwatidzo, including federal criminal sanctions, said Hess, who also credited Baltimore County police and agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with working quickly together on the case.
The packages were shipped by someone in Pembroke Pines, Fla., Hess said. Pembroke Pines is a small community north of Miami. Investigators are working to determine the identity of the sender, he said.
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