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All 20 posts | Subject: Keen eye nets $1 million | Please login to post | Down | |
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Jade (Hive Bee) 05-08-04 17:20 No 505822 
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Keen eye nets $1 million | ||||||
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Keen eye nets $1 million by MELINDA W. BIGELOW Press Argus-Courier Staff The keen eye of Crawford County narcotics investigator Jeff Smith paid off handsomely for local drug-fighting efforts Monday as $1 million was disbursed from forfeited funds seized in Smith’s Sept. 25 traffic stop on Interstate 40. Smith was observing westbound traffic at the 12-mile marker when he noticed an altered fender well on a 1996 Chevrolet Tahoe without license plates. Upon further inspection and after obtaining consent to search, Smith, assisted by Arkansas Highway Police Officer First Class Tim Gushing, uncovered a hidden compartment which contained $1,168,380 in United States currency. The forfeited funds were distributed $249,976 each to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department, Van Buren Police Department and Crawford County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and $184,561 to the Arkansas Highway Police. The funds must be used for law enforcement. The vehicle stopped by Smith contained no illegal drugs; however, three automobile air fresheners were found in the hidden compartment which is consistent with drug traffickers trying to conceal the aroma of illegal drugs. A drug detection canine positively alerted for the presence of narcotics in the hidden compartment’s vicinity. Smith smelled fresh paint and Bondo, a substance used to repair damaged vehicle dents upon opening the vehicle’s rear door. Plastic molding around the carpet edge was affixed with screws marked with fresh screw marks. The plastic panel covering the jack on the rear cargo area did not fit properly and a portion of the jack was held in place with a wood screw which is unusual. Smith also noticed the floor appeared to be raised and bolts holding the rear seat were scratched with fresh tool marks. Pulling back the carpet, Smith discovered a trap door. Hidden behind the trap door, Smith located 58 bundles of currency wrapped in duct tape and labeled with the amount of money each contained. Nery Gustavo Ramos, driver of the Tahoe, denied any knowledge of the money. He said he flew one-way to Chicago from Los Angeles to buy the vehicle and move to Mexico. The affidavit said he had no bill of sale. No charges have been filed against Ramos, but the investigation is continuing, according to William J. Bryant, Drug Enforcement Agency assistant special agent in charge. “DEA assists a lot of local law enforcement agencies in on-going investigations. This money recovered was part of a large drug organization. It is good to see this money put to good use,” Bryant said Monday after the money was disbursed. Locally, $300,000 will go toward rebuilding the prosecutor’s office and criminal investigation division which were destroyed in a fire. Pending Van Buren City Council approval, the Van Buren Police Department plans to purchase land for a new police building and architect’s services. Vehicles will be purchased for the sheriff’s department’s criminal investigators and an Alma Police Department unit. http://www.pressargus.com/archive/2004/May/05/keen_eye.html Yes, he does look guilty and should thank his lucky stars that they let him go. However, it still amazes me how they can take that money BEFORE any charges are made let alone proven. Also, wasn't there a time when money such as this was supposed to go to our schools? Dwarfer is a troublemaker! |
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Unobtainium (Minister of Propaganda) 05-09-04 00:50 No 505879 
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where's the other $66,109? | ||||||
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Jade (Hive Bee) 05-09-04 02:43 No 505913
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Read this.... | ||||||
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This article is a few years old but it confirms what I thought about the money supposed to be going to education. Taking Cash Into Custody A Special Report On Police And Drug Money Seizures ACROSS U.S., POLICE DODGE STATE SEIZURE LAWS Police and highway patrols across the country are evading state laws to improperly keep millions of dollars in cash and property seized in drug busts and traffic stops. Most states don't want law enforcement agencies to profit so easily from such confiscations -- they see it as a dangerous conflict of interest. For that reason, they have passed laws blocking seized property from going directly back to police, and many states designate seizures to be used for other purposes, such as education. But a yearlong examination by The Kansas City Star reveals that police agencies in every one of more than two dozen states checked by the newspaper have used federal law enforcement to circumvent their own laws and keep most of that money for themselves. It works this way: When police seize money, they call a federal agency instead of going to state court to confiscate it. An agency such as the Drug Enforcement Administration accepts the seizure, making it a federal case. The DEA keeps a cut of the money and returns the rest to police. State courts -- and their generally more-restrictive forfeiture laws -- are bypassed altogether. Law enforcement says that's not illegal and that without the money, police would be handcuffed in fighting crime. But millions of dollars that lawmakers in some states have designated for education, drug treatment programs and other purposes instead end up back in the hands of police. For example: A North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper stopped a driver last year on Interstate 95 for tailgating. A police dog signaled drugs were in the Toyota, where troopers found $105,700 and two grams of marijuana. The driver denied owning either the drugs or the money. The highway patrol gave[ it ] the money to the DEA, which returned more than $80,000 to the state patrol, even though North Carolina law generally requires sending seized money to education. In June a Georgia trooper stopped a 1996 Monte Carlo for speeding on I-95. After the driver and passengers gave conflicting stories, the trooper searched the car and found a hidden compartment containing $7,000, which the driver said was from savings. The patrol turned over the money to the DEA, which in January returned $5,440 to the patrol. Under Georgia law forfeited money should go to the state's general fund. In 1996, the Missouri Highway Patrol stopped a Volkswagen Golf for speeding, searched it because the occupants seemed suspicious and found $24,000. No drugs were found and no one claimed the money. The patrol gave it to the DEA to be forfeited, the legal term for confiscation. (The case took a bizarre turn last year when a family that bought the car at auction discovered an additional $82,000 in the gas tank. The DEA took that money, too.) Missouri law sends forfeiture money to a public school fund. Beyond the money diverted from public funds, critics are just as troubled by the weakening of a basic American civil liberty -- the Bill of Rights protection against improper search and seizure. The federal hand-offs, critics say, also create an opportunity for police to profit from their own actions. Indeed, they trace an increasing outcry over aggressive or illegal searches by police nationwide back to the profit motive. "If you think that by conducting an illegal search and seizing people on the highway you can increase the number of times where you can take assets, it is going to become a big motivating force," said Ira Glasser, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. This may be one of those rare issues that elicits protests across the political spectrum -- from the ACLU to the National Rifle Association. Americans don't realize that forfeitures often occur to "ordinary people who happen to find themselves in a situation in which they are simply suspected of having been somehow involved in criminal activity, whether those suspicions ever prove out or not," said Roger Pilon, a vice president at the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank. "The line between a free society and a police state is usually broached in small steps." But many police complain that state laws are too restrictive, sometimes preventing them from taking the money that fuels drug operations. Others readily admit they avoid state laws because they need to use seized money to fight the war on drugs -- their own cities and states may not provide the funding otherwise. "A lot of state agencies, like the GBI, prefer to work federal cases because we know it will go directly into our asset forfeiture bank," said Mark Jackson, director of legal services for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Some federal officials contend the cases collected by the newspaper prove nothing. "In a country this big, you can find cases all over the lot," said Jerry McDowell, director of the Justice Department's asset forfeiture and money laundering division. "I don't think police agencies are in the business of profiting." Besides, he said, it's legal for police to send seizures to federal agencies because most state laws do not specifically prohibit that. "We certainly don't want to subvert state law, and we don't want states to subvert our law," McDowell said. But most states do prohibit simply handing off seizures -- their laws give jurisdiction over seizures to state courts, The Star has found. What that means, say legal experts and judges who have examined the little-known state provisions, is that police cannot simply hand off seizures to federal agents to avoid state requirements. They need a court order first. One federal court in a Louisiana case even derisively likened the evasion maneuver to a trick football play. The court wrote: "NFL sportscasters might call the handoff from the Sheriff's Office to the DEA, followed by the lateral back from the DEA to the Sheriff's Office, a 'flea-flicker.' " James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers determined forfeiture would be used only on a limited basis -- to seize foreign ships for failure to pay customs duties, for example. As a result, the Bill of Rights protects Americans from illegal searches and seizures: No person shall "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Two hundred years later, much has changed with the advent of the war on drugs. But it was up to the Justice Department to write the guidelines to implement the law -- and that's where critics say the intent of the law was twisted. In addition to addressing joint investigations led by federal agencies, the Justice guidelines created a process called "adoption." Under adoption, state and local police could give their seizures to the federal government -- even if a federal agency had not been involved. The Justice Department "turned around and permitted the forfeiture laws to be used basically to circumvent state law," Hughes said. As a result, private citizens are now more vulnerable to forfeiture because circumvented state laws often provide more protections than federal forfeiture laws. For example, some state laws protect people from having property forfeited by police unless they're charged with a felony. But under federal law, authorities don't even need a criminal charge to forfeit property. In fact, experts estimate that the great majority of forfeitures occur without a criminal charge. Most state laws require that forfeitures be ordered by a judge. Federal law enforcement has the power to order forfeitures without a judge -- and does in most cases. And it's costly to contest a federal forfeiture. Defense attorneys estimate it costs at least $10,000, so many won't even accept a case unless the value of the seizure is large. Although many people whose property is seized are no doubt guilty of a crime, that doesn't mean all are. Charlotte Carroll, a disabled, 64-year-old Maryland woman, could lose her house because police found a third of an ounce of cocaine and other drugs that some of her children left there. Under Maryland law, a house usually can't be forfeited without a criminal conviction. Police tapped the federal government to forfeit the three-acre property, which has been in Carroll's family for a century. "I got sick, so sick in my stomach and started crying," Carroll said. "I'm just praying." Carroll, who has osteoarthritis and receives $500 a month from Social Security disability, has never been convicted of a crime, her attorney said. In 1997 and 1998, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department received back more than $2.5 million. In 1998 alone, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took back $1.7 million. (Both those figures include proceeds from joint investigations.) And in a single case in Indiana, a state trooper stopped a truck for speeding on Interstate 70. Troopers found $811,470 and turned it over to the DEA, which this year returned almost $500,000 to the state police and $121,000 to a sheriff's department that helped. Wisconsin law mandates that forfeiture money goes to public schools, but only $16,906 went into Wisconsin's education fund during the year ending in June 1999, according to the state treasury department. During just six months of the same period, local law enforcement gave the federal government $1.5 million in seizures. In Kentucky, no forfeited money has gone into a substance abuse fund for at least four years, even though some should under state law. In fact, The Star found that police circumvented[ folo ] their laws even in states that would have given them back much of their seizures had they gone through state court. But The Star found that more than two-thirds of all states appear to prohibit handing off money to federal agencies without permission of a state court. Those states have requirements that courts have called "turnover orders." Many of the provisions read like the one in Illinois: "Property taken or detained under this section ... is deemed to be in the custody of the law enforcement department or agency employing the seizing officer subject only to the orders and judgments of the circuit court having jurisdiction over the forfeiture proceedings." That means only a state judge can transfer a seizure to a federal agency, legal experts say. "This statute is not difficult at all," said David Harris, a University of Toledo law professor and constitutional expert. "The state court has jurisdiction." A half-dozen state and federal court decisions have backed that interpretation. Joseph McNamara, former San Jose and Kansas City police chief, said city officials can take some of the blame for the federal hand-offs. He recalls one year in San Jose his department's tentative budget had no money for equipment, so McNamara asked the city manager why. "He kind of waved his hand dismissively and said, 'Well, you guys seized $4 million last year, I expect you to do better this year,' " McNamara said. "The real narcotic here is the money," said Glasser of the ACLU. "It becomes a stream of income that they learn not to do without and then they have to generate more of it." http://www.reconsider.org/tidbits/2000-05-31%20Sure%20sounds%20like%20stealing%20to%20me_.htm Dwarfer is a troublemaker! |
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purplepoison (Hive Bee) 05-12-04 02:13 No 506566 |
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schools | ||||||
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Right now Arkansas is closing a whole bunch of little schools and bussing kids 50 miles to another town..............because of Lack of Funds...............I wonder if any of the orfices involved in that money scam arrest have kids that are going to bee bussed that far? oh wait they won't care, that is the soccer Moms job.. sorry Jade   just could not resist it!
purplerock |
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paranoid (Hive Addict) 05-12-04 03:06 No 506575 |
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What the hell. This is simply unbelievable. | ||||||
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What the hell. This is simply unbelievable. Dogs "smelled" drugs, and although none were found. Police officers "smelled" paint and Bondo. They "suspect" a drug involvement, and therefore take the guy's vehicle apart, steal the money inside, and don't charge him. Excuse me. These are the tactics employed by either a Fascist police state or a corrupt law enforcement agency. And from what I understand, this is commmonplace in the USA. Holy shit, this simply epitomises the degree to which people are being blindly fucked over in the USA. I'm am simply astounded... 100% Canadian Bullshit |
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Unobtainium (Minister of Propaganda) 05-12-04 13:41 No 506654
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bad sniffers | ||||||
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Tests have shown K-9's can have an accuracy rate as low as 65% in testing environments. In the field it is likely far lower, and considering they get a reward for a positive hit, they are motivated to signal on anything. The fact that their noses are used to determine probable cause is a joke. If the cops want "probable cause" they can call in the K-9 and produce it. a very special 'fuck you' as well. |
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foxy2 (Fragile ego) 05-16-04 18:42 No 507532 |
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a 1996 Chevrolet Tahoe without license plates... | ||||||
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a 1996 Chevrolet Tahoe without license plates Brilliant!!! If they were smart they would mail the money to the northern part of a border state and then smuggle it to mexico. That way you always have local liscense plates which greatly reduces your chances of such a stop. That was one expensive lesson. I'll bet jail would bee preferable to what the owner of that million will do to the poor courier. 
http://www.democracynow.org/ - The Exception to the Rulers |
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gsus (Hive Bee) 05-16-04 20:42 No 507547 |
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dogs (not the excellent Pink Floyd tune) | ||||||
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More than $2-million seized in an April traffic stop by the Nebraska State Patrol sits poised to fuel the drug war. The vacuum-sealed cash turned up in a van searched near Gretna on April 1. A drug dog hit on the 40 bags of green, leading authorities to pronounce the money tainted. Two men in the van said the money was not theirs and they did not know why they had millions of dollars stuffed in two suitcases and a backpack. The men were not arrested but the troopers took the money. The millions that were such a mystery to the men in the van were turned over to the U.S. Treasury and converted into a cashier's check for safekeeping. That check was given to the U.S. Marshal's office and then deposited with the Federal Reserve. The actual cash that was seized has since been destroyed. If no valid claims are made for the money, much of it will be distributed to the agencies that investigated the seizure. Patrol Sgt. Greg Kallhoff said the NSP would use it to fight the drug war. that was from http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/773877.html are we sure that the dogs are being trained to sniff out drugs on cash, and not cash itself? http://www.judgesagainstthedrugwar.org |
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Unobtainium (Minister of Propaganda) 05-16-04 23:01 No 507562
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That's where it went | ||||||
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>>If no valid claims are made for the money, much of it will be distributed to the agencies that investigated the seizure. How do I claim it? >>are we sure that the dogs are being trained to sniff out drugs on cash, and not cash itself? It's the same thing. 80-90% of all money in circulation has drug residue on it. a very special 'fuck you' as well. |
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weedar (Gaylord) 05-17-04 13:19 No 507688 
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but | ||||||
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It's the same thing. 80-90% of all money in circulation has drug residue on it. I thought the amount was so low you could only discover it via analasys and not with the help of dogs? I've got tissues with issues |
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Unobtainium (Minister of Propaganda) 05-17-04 14:19 No 507701
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Not when there's 7 bags of it. | ||||||
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Not when there's 7 bags of it. a very special 'fuck you' as well. |
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18294 (Newbee) 05-25-04 07:41 No 509473 |
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amendment? | ||||||
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Quote: "But under federal law, authorities don't even need a criminal charge to forfeit property. In fact, experts estimate that the great majority of forfeitures occur without a criminal charge." I thought an amendment in the constitution limited this power? |
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wolff_kishner (Newbee) 09-26-04 18:29 No 533267 |
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Re: amendment? | ||||||
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Artex (Stranger) 09-27-04 16:07 No 533398 |
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Limited sense of smell | ||||||
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A dog is only going to hit on cash if that cash has been exposed to a sizable amount of contraband. Just because there is drug residue on 80-90% of cash doesn't mean that a dog will hit on a dollar bill every time you ask for the sniff. The scent of minor residue isn't so powerful that the k-9 will sense it. There must be a sizable amount of residue on the money. Think of how you smell when you go out to a club. If you're in a place where a whole lot of people are smoking cigarettes, your jacket and shirt are going to stink like cigarette smoke. Same concept with cash. A dog will only hit on cash if the cash has been exposed to a large aroma of narcotics. |
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Tdurden969 (Hive Bee) 09-27-04 23:50 No 533470 |
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Dude, you SO sound like a cop. | ||||||
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Dude, you SO sound like a cop. And you're wrong
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Artex (Stranger) 09-28-04 14:39 No 533560 |
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Two different dogs | ||||||
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Those are different kinds of dogs. For instance: A canine trained to detect narcotics is not trained to detect explosive devices. Obviously, this is for good reason: Contraband is something the officer can immediately open, discover, and seize while accelerants and explosives need a different approach. I've not heard of a 'Currency' dog. I'm not surprised that they exist, but I can't imagine that they are used in any other capacity than that which you've described: sniffing for scads of undeclared currency. Keep in mind, to avoid having Fido root around in your luggage, simply declare the currency at inspection. A simple explanation of moving funds from one international bank to another diverts any suspicion. FYI: I'm a He. I've been a prosecutor for more than two years now, so I'm still young and learning. I'm here to learn more from your point of view. Most of what I write will be reliable. I may be incorrect at times, but it won't be because I'm intentionally spreading 'misinformation'. Rather, I'm speaking from my limited experience in Texas. I hope that those of you who choose to debate with me will recognize your own limitations as well. |
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Osmium (Stoni's sexual toy) 09-28-04 18:49 No 533604 
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> I'm here to learn more from your point of | ||||||
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> I'm here to learn more from your point of view. Trying to be more successful in your job? BUSH/CHENEY 2004! After all, it ain't my country! www.american-buddha.com/addict.war.1.htm |
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Artex (Stranger) 09-28-04 18:54 No 533605 |
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Well, yes. | ||||||
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Part of being more successful is being more compassionate and understanding the circumstances and philosophies surrounding the lifestyle. There's more on this in the Asset and Forfeiture thread. |
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Jade (soccer mom) 09-28-04 22:32 No 533649 
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The Customs training center teaches dogs to... | ||||||
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The Customs training center teaches dogs to recognize heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. "If dogs are trained in all these odors, they can differentiate between them," Officer Newcombe said. "The dog identifies the individual odor. As long as the odor is present, the dog will be able to respond to it." They respond so well that the training center stopped using detergent to wash the towels used by the dogs for fear they might home in on the laundry of returning travelers. Some dogs specialize in detecting smuggled United States bank notes by identifying the scent of currency paper and ink at amounts of around $10,000. "We're training the dog on various levels of currency," Officer Newcombe said, adding that the customs service uses shredded money from the Mint in training exercises. Dr. Kenneth G. Furton, the chairman of the chemistry department at Florida International University in Miami and the director of the International Forensic Research Institute, has found detector dogs remarkably selective, even when smugglers try to mask a scent with more pungent odors. "If you put cocaine with coffee grounds," he said, "dogs will find the cocaine." The dogs, Dr. Furton explained, "are not smelling cocaine, but the odor of chemicals which dissipate from cocaine," notably methylbenzoate, a tell-tale chemical emitted as cocaine breaks down. PSEUDO DRUGS All pseudo should be kept according to the directions on the label. Some are kept in the in the freezer, some are recommended for the fridge. If a bottle has not been opened the shelf life is a year. Once opened (even if the top is screwed down tight each time it is taken off) the shelf life drops to 6 months. When a handler is going to train he should take the amount of pseudo he is going to use for that day from the bottle. Once it’s out of the freezer or fridge the pseudo has a 24 to 48 hour shelf life. After 24 hours 75% of the scent has evaporated. Sigma will tell you that each pseudo drug has a distinct smell to humans, and you should be able to judge if it still good from it’s smell. A point to mention is that the pseudo drugs do not smell like the real drugs to people - only to dogs. http://leerburg.com/qadrug.htm#puppy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just in case anyone is interested, I found the following recipes on google PREPARATION OF PSEUDO COCAINE E:= ODORANT 1ML (1 CC) METHYL BENZOATE WITH 1 GRAM OF CAB-O-SIL TO FORM F: TAKE 100MG (1/10 OF A GRAM ) AND MIXED WITH 1 GRAM UNODORIZED CAB-O-SIL ADD 908 GRAMS MICROCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE: ( ADICEL PH-101 NF OR EQUIVALENT.) TO COMPLETED. PSEUDO COCAINE METHEL BENZOATE 1ML (1 CC) CABOSIL 4.54 GRAMS AVICEL 454 GRAMS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PREPARATION OF PSEUDO HEROIN TAKE 2 ML. (2 CC) GLACIAL ACETIC ACID PLUS 1 GRAM CABOSIL MIX. THEN ADD ANOTHER 1 GRAM OF CABOSIL TO THIS PRODUCT. MIX 454 GRAMS OF AVICEL INTO IT. ADD 151.25 GRAMS OF ACETYLSALICYLIC ACID ( ASPIRIN ). PSEUDO HEROIN GLASCIAL ACETIC ACID 2ML. (2 CC) CABOSIL 2 GRAMS AVICEL 454 GRAMS ASPRIN 151.25 GRAMS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEROIN SUBSTITUTE 1.5 ML. OF GLACIAL ACETIC ACID 41.8 ML. OF 37% HYDROCHLORIC ACID 207.7 ML. DISTILLED WATER There's a terrorist behind every Bush. |
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yei (Newbee) 10-04-04 06:00 No 534357 |
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boy, it would be funny if someone spilled a... | ||||||
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boy, it would be funny if someone spilled a bottle of methyl benzoate in an airport. Or on an officer's shoe... And it sounds like one had better not carry vinegar in their luggage if they wish to avoid a messy body search. phew. unbelievable. It's good to bee back! Don't trust your computer!! |
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