A Missouri man was found guilty Thursday by a Coeur d’Alene jury of trafficking 23 pounds of marijuana stuffed into duffel bags lying in the bed of his pickup truck when he was stopped by police on Interstate 90 near Rose Lake.

Jurors deliberated briefly after a two-day trial in First District Court before convicting Xuewen “Mike” Lin, 22, of the felony.

Trafficking more than 5 pounds of marijuana carries a mandatory prison sentence of three years in Idaho.

Lin pleaded not guilty to trafficking between 5 and 25 pounds of marijuana, and another felony of intending to deliver a controlled substance. The second felony was dismissed by prosecutors.

Idaho State Police troopers pulled over Lin’s 2010 Chevy Silverado pickup Oct. 10 on I-90 near Rose Lake because Lin failed to use his blinker for five seconds before changing lanes, and the pickup truck’s windows were too heavily tinted.

Lin told police he was on his way to Spokane to visit friends, and when police asked about the contents of the pickup he wanted his attorney present, according to troopers.

A drug dog alerted on the Silverado, allowing police to search the pickup truck. They found a commercial marijuana grinder in the pickup’s bed, “jumbo” plastic pouches of marijuana, and $17,500 in cash, troopers said.

Lin’s attorney argued in a pre-trial motion that troopers arrested his client before finding the cannabis and that troopers had no probable cause for the traffic stop, or the arrest.

Defense attorney Harry Madsen accused troopers of abandoning the putative traffic stop to deploy the drug dog, instead of following through with the citations for an illegal lane change and illegal window tint.

“The stop was intentionally delayed to give time to run the K-9,” Madsen said at a motion hearing.

First District Judge John Mitchell ruled against the defendant, and allowed the evidence to be admitted in court.

Jury instructions prohibited Madsen from bringing up the suppression motion to the jury.

Trooper Chris Cottrell said he checked the window tint and found the front window was in violation. When he ran Lin’s criminal history, “I found some things that were concerning,” Cottrell said.

“I believed at the time that there was a crime of drug trafficking,” Cottrell said.