Over the weekend, a Utah Highway Patrol officer pulled over a speeding driver for a routine traffic stop. The trooper clocked the car moving 76 mph in a 65 mph zone on I-80 in Summit County. The driver carried a California driver’s license. The officer noticed a strange smell coming from the vehicle, so he asked the driver to get out of the car, and whether they had a medical marijuana card.

Requesting a driver exit their vehicle during a traffic stop is considered “routine business.” However, police cannot search a car without probable cause. In this case, the smell, plus the “No” answer to the medical card question, was enough to qualify.

The trooper found a duffle bag full of 83 pounds of raw marijuana, the affidavit said. The officer arrested the driver and the car went to the Section 7 Utah Highway Patrol Office.

Later, a full vehicle search uncovered an incredible array of illegal substances.

Aside from the raw marijuana, police found:

• 6 large vacuum bags of psilocybin mushrooms
• 4,000 MDMA pills (otherwise known as Ecstasy)
• Nearly 200 THC cartridges
• About 36 packages of edible THC products
• Several pre-rolled joints

Authorities charged the suspect with (big breath in, here) two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance (third-degree felony), three counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance (third-degree felony), possession of a controlled substance (marijuana/spice, class B misdemeanor), use or possession of drug paraphernalia (class B misdemeanor), and speeding (infraction). The Summit County court decided to hold the driver without bail.

The case is a decent example of how a police officer might use probable cause to search a vehicle at a traffic stop.

While smell alone has been argued in court as “too relative” and not enough to qualify for reasonable suspicion, many states uphold vehicle searches and seizures stemming from an officer’s nose.