It came by truck from California disguised as a shipment of T-shirts.

But police say the freight — all 190 pounds of it — was actually marijuana, and it’s one of the biggest seizures of the illegal drug in the 32-year history of the city-county drug unit.

Acting on a tip Monday, officers caught a California man coming to pick up the load of pot from a shipping business in North Lawrence. The estimated wholesale value: $200,000.

The drugs had been shipped to Lawrence from Long Beach, Calif., in multiple boxes labeled as a load of T-shirts; a few “California U.S.A” screen-printed tees were tucked inside to cover the contraband.

The low-grade Mexican marijuana was compressed and packaged into one-pound bricks resembling bread loaves. It appeared to be wrapped in foil, coated with grease and wrapped in plastic to disguise the scent.

Police said the shipment came from “a major source” and was likely headed for a bigger city to be sold to dealers in multiple-pound quantities.

Though it’s uncommon to intercept packages sent through ground freight, police said they thought it could be part of a trend.

“Major cities are doing such a good job with interdiction that they appear to be dropping off loads at surrounding towns and picking it up,” said Lawrence Police Sgt. Tarik Khatib, supervisor of the city-county Drug Enforcement Unit.

Police couldn’t say with certainty that Monday’s haul was the largest seizure in the history of the drug unit, but the largest previous seizure anyone could remember was a 165-pound shipment in 1989.

Lawrence Police Sgt. Dan Ward, left, and Sgt. Tarik Khatib display bricks of marijuana seized at a local shipping business. A California man was arrested Monday as he picked up the 190-pound shipment worth up to 00,000. The police officers displayed the marijuana on Wednesday.

Authorities learned of the package Thursday after being contacted by Nashville, Tenn., police, said Sgt. Dan Ward, a Lawrence Police spokesman. An employee at a shipping hub in Nashville noticed the package was heavier than it should have been and called police to investigate, Ward said.

Police obtained the package and scheduled a “controlled delivery” Monday at Norrenberns Truck Service, 1827 E. 1450 Road.

The man who came to pick up the package was identified as 35-year-old Edgar Illescas, a Mexican national listing an address in San Lorenzo, Calif. Police arrested him in a traffic stop after he drove away from the business, Ward said.

Illescas was booked Monday night into the Douglas County Jail but was later taken into custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, officials said.

Prosecutors in Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney’s office charged him with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, using a telephone to arrange a drug sale and failure to purchase a tax stamp, all felonies. There’s a chance the case will end up in U.S. District Court.

The Drug Enforcement Unit, which consists of officers from the Lawrence Police Department and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, began in 1982.

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