BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Four former LSU football players were arrested Thursday on drug-related charges, officials said.
Jordan Jefferson, Tyrann Mathieu, Karnell Hatcher, and Derrick Bryant were all charged with marijuana-related offenses, police said.
WAFB's Jim Shannon and Kiran Chawla first reported the arrests at 5pm Thursday, quoting law enforcement sources.
Mathieu and Jefferson were charged with Simple Possession of Marijuana, Hatcher was charged with 2nd Offense Simple Possession of Marijuana and Bryant was charged with Possession With Intent to Distribute Marijuana, Baton Rouge police later confirmed. All four men will be booked into to the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.
Jefferson is a former LSU quarterback who started the BCS National Championship Game in January 2012.
Mathieu, a defensive back widely known as the "Honey Badger", was removed from the LSU football team earlier this year after what sources said was multiple failed drug tests. He is currently enrolled at LSU and was hoping to return to the team next season. Mathieu was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy in 2011.
Both Hatcher and Bryant were defensive backs for LSU.
At approximately 3:30pm Thursday, officers were dispatched to an apartment at 262 West State in Baton Rouge in reference to a complaint about a man attempting to force his way in to the complex through a security gate, police said. According to police news release: The man was confronted by a maintenance worker and words were exchanged. Before officers arrived the man had been let into the complex by a resident and was seen going into an apartment. When officers went to the apartment and knocked on the door it was answered by the resident, Tyrann Mathieu, age 20, police said.
"Officers immediately smelled a strong odor of marijuana and obtained consent from Mathieu to search the apartment", a police news release said. "Inside they found three other men, including the one who had allegedly tried to force his way through the gate. He was identified as Jordan Jefferson," police said. Police said the other two men were identified as Bryant and Hatcher.
Police said a search of the apartment found a marijuana grinder, digital scale and 10 bags of high grade marijuana. 7 of the bags were found inside Bryant's book sack, police said. All four men were taken into custody and arrested, police said.
Former LSU football standouts arrested on drug charges - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports
