Akron driver and Chicago passenger busted with kilo of cocaine on Ohio Turnpike in Lake Township

LAKE TOWNSHIP, Ohio - Two men are facing felony drug charges after troopers seized a kilo of cocaine, worth approximately $100,000, during a traffic stop on the Ohio Turnpike.

Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers stopped a rented 2013 Toyota Camry, with Illinois registration, for a marked lanes violation on the Ohio Turnpike near milepost 74 in Lake Township at 9:48 a.m. Wednesday.

Troopers said they performed a search after observing criminal indicators and being alerted to the car by a drug-sniffing canine. The search revealed cocaine inside a shoebox in the trunk of the car, troopers said.

The driver, Robert D. Hammond, 29, of Akron, and passenger, Eric M. Strickland, 45, of Chicago, Ill., were put in  Wood County Jail and charged with drug abuse and trafficking in drugs, both first-degree felonies.

Each face a conviction of as many as 20 years in prison and as much as a $40,000 fine.