Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jan 2002
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2002 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.news-observer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304
Author: Traci Ashley, Correspondent
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

TRAFFIC STOP IN JOHNSTON NETS $472,386

BENSON -- The Johnston County Sheriff's Office might reap a big windfall 
after a deputy found $472,386 in the trunk of a car he stopped Tuesday for 
a traffic violation on Interstate 95.

The two Miami men who were in the car told investigators they knew nothing 
about the money, and they were not charged with any crime, Capt. Fred Dees 
said. If no owner appears, he said, the cash could be forfeited, meaning 
the sheriff's office would get most of it.

Sheriff Steve Bizzell called the cash seizure "the largest seizure of this 
nature in the history of Johnston County."

Investigators suspect the money is related to drugs, though they found no 
drugs in the vehicle, a 1995 Toyota Camry, Dees said. "What it amounts to 
is that drug dealers will help incur the expense of narcotics 
investigations in the county," he said. "It's a means and a way for law 
enforcement to use the drug trafficker's money and put it to good use."

Deputy Jason Crocker was on patrol in a marked car just before noon Tuesday 
when he stopped the Camry, which was headed south close to the Interstate 
40 interchange near Benson, Dees said. After giving the driver a warning 
ticket for following too closely, the deputy noticed that the trunk 
appeared unusual and asked to search the car.

"He noticed that the trunk did not look like it should, like it was altered 
or welded in spots," Dees said.

Inside the trunk, Crocker found 63 stacks of cash wrapped in black plastic 
and tape inside a specially made compartment on top of the space used to 
store the spare tire.

"It appears that a trunk compartment was taken out of another vehicle and 
put on top of this one, leaving a gap of about four inches," Dees said.

Highway Patrol troopers arrived with a drug-sniffing dog, which "alerted on 
the trunk," Patrol spokeswoman Renee Hoffman said. "Turns out it was the 
money."

Authorities also seized the car, which was not registered to either of its 
occupants, Isaac Ordonez, 38, and Nick Hurtado, 27. The two men told 
officers they had not known the money was in the trunk and did not know who 
owned it, he said.

The sheriff's office plans to turn the case over to the FBI, which will 
investigate the money's ownership. That would put the case in the 
jurisdiction of the federal courts, which would oversee any forfeiture of 
the cash.

Hoffman said anyone claiming to own the money would have to explain where 
it came from. "If the two guys say they've never seen the money, then they 
give up complete ownership," she said.

Bizzell said the cash, if unclaimed, would help pay for sheriff's office 
investigations and equipment. "And we're getting it in a way that's not 
from the taxpayer," Bizzell said.

Staff writer Thomasi McDonald contributed to this report.
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