Snoop Dogg arrested on marijuana possession charge

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Rapper Snoop Dogg was arrested over the weekend after border control agents found what they said was a small amount of marijuana on his tour bus.

The singer and record producer, 40, was stopped at the same Sierra Blanca, Texas, checkpoint Saturday where country singer Willie Nelson was arrested for marijuana possession in 2010, customs officials said.

Bill Brooks, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, said agents conducted a routine inspection of the rapper's tour bus on at the U.S.- Mexico border checkpoint east of El Paso and thought they smelled marijuana.

"When our officers did a further inspection, they discovered a small amount of marijuana and turned him over to the Hudspeth County sheriff," Brooks said.

Brooks declined to say how much marijuana was involved or where it was found. The rapper was booked and released and given a January 20 court date.

Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, has been arrested and convicted numerous times in the last 10 years for possession of drugs ranging from marijuana to cocaine, and weapons offenses.

In 2008, Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson collaborated on the song and music video "My Medicine," a thinly veiled homage to marijuana. Both artists have made their appreciation of pot an important part of their public personas.

The rapper's spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment on his latest arrest.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Alex Dobuzinskis)

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Photo credit: Gergely Csatari