UNDATED – Almost a half a pound of cocaine was located during a traffic stop in Branch County.

The Michigan State Police Hometown Security Team was running a traffic patrol on I-69 Wednesday when they noticed a vehicle that was traveling improperly in the right lane. Troopers says the vehicle pulled off of the highway at the Coldwater exit and drove into the Speedway gas station.

Officers contacted the driver of the vehicle, 28 year old Zeb Lockett of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Lockett appeared nervous and said he rented the vehicle two days earlier in Texas. However, he had no documents to show he had rented it.

Lockett told troopers that he was traveling from Arkansas to Flint to visit his mother. Troopers became suspicious of the way Lockett was acting and answering their questions, so they asked to search the vehicle. Lockett said yes, and troopers located a Tupperware container behind the battery compartment that had 203 grams of a white substance.

A field test determined it was cocaine. Lockett denied he knew the drug was in the vehicle. He was arrested for possession of cocaine and was taken to the Branch County Jail where he is being held. Bond is set at $50,000.

Troopers says Lockett has had previous run ins with the law in Saginaw County and St. Clair County, where he was convicted of delivery of marijuana and possession of a weapon.

Lockett is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on December 15.