Texas Police Take A Bite Out Of McGruff

Okay, not the real McGruff, but – in a true “Whoa, dude” moment, a guy who dressed up as him in Harris County, Texas has been arrested for cultivating loco weed.

A Houston man who once portrayed McGruff the Crime Dog has shown his commitment to crime fighting apparently wasn’t very deep.

John R. Morales was sentenced this week to 16 years and three months in federal prison on drug and weapons charges after police found more than 1,000 marijuana plants and 27 weapons, including grenade launchers, at two indoor farms.

Morales wore the McGruff costume for the Harris County Sheriff’s Association in the late 1990s.

A real crime dog — the drug-sniffing variety — detected pot plans in Morales’ trunk after he was stopped for speeding in Galveston in 2011. Authorities say officers found a clipboard with maps to the indoor farms.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.