McGruff The Crime Dog Actor Sentenced For Running Massive Pot Ring

McGruff the Crime Dog should have taken his own advice and taken a bite out of crime.

Instead, the actor who once played the crime-fighting cartoon dog is headed to prison for close to 20 years for possessing 1,000 marijuana plans and nearly 30 weapons including a grenade launcher.

John Russell Morales, 41, was arrested after he was pulled over for speeding in Galveston, Texas.

Inside the car police found blueprints for a massive pot-growing operation. They later checked out his house, finding 1,000 marijuana plants and 9,000 pounds of ammunition for a cache of weapons that included a shotgun, rifles, pistols, and the grenade launcher.

Defense attorney Ken Fesler II claimed that Morales only got into the drug trade to help some sick relatives, but at his sentencing a judge did not go easy on him, handing down a sentence of 16 years and three months in federal prison.

At the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore told Morales that, “Everything I read about you makes you seem like a scary person.”

But he wasn’t always scary. Pictures that surfaced this week show Morales dressed as McGruff the Crime Dog during a visit to The Ballpark in Arlington in 1998. Morales made appearances as the character for the the Harris County Sheriff’s Association.

The McGruff character was created for the National Crime Prevention Council as a way to raise awareness of crime among kids. Introduced in 1980, the character originally had no name until a national naming contest led to him being branded McGruff the Crime Dog.

The character remains around today, used in campaigns like “Take a Bite Out Of Piracy,” which aims to stop people from illegally downloading content online.

Ironically, the actor who played McGruff the Crime Dog was caught because real drug-sniffing dogs discovered his marijuana stash, leading to police to the massive pot operation.