The drivers said it was an Amazon load, but when state police searched the semi Friday on Interstate 80 in Peru they found drugs. Lots of drugs. The initial tally suggests nearly 3 tons of cannabis.

That’s believed to be a La Salle County record. The two men posing as Amazon drivers are in custody and face up to 60 years if convicted of cannabis trafficking.

Haed O. Samhan, 45, of Harwood Heights and Mahmoud B. Bazrouk, 41, of Norridge were transported Friday evening to La Salle County Jail to await detention hearings, expected Tuesday.

Details still are emerging, but so far it has been disclosed that the seizure happened during a random roadside motor carrier safety inspection around 11:30 a.m. Friday on eastbound I-80 between Plank Road and Route 251. A search yielded multiple pallets of cannabis and cannabis products.

The La Salle County State’s Attorney’s Office disclosed a preliminary weight of 5,858.4 pounds.

“That’s over 2 million grams,” said Jason Goode, first assistant La Salle County state’s attorney. “We all think it’s a record.”

A record it probably is. According to Shaw Local News Network archives, the next-largest seizure was a scant 1 ton (about 1,800 pounds) seized from a woman in the mid-1990s. A corresponding case record, however, could not be immediately retrieved from La Salle County court records.

While authorities work out where Friday’s seizure stands in the crime-fighting annals, Samhan and Bazrouk need to figure out how to avoid near-life sentences in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Formal charges are expected to be disclosed Tuesday in La Salle County Circuit Court, but prosecutors said the suspects are likely to face a Super Class X felony carrying 12 to 60 years in prison with no possibility of probation. Additionally, both men could be required to serve 75% of their prison time.