Re: Traffic stop in Beatty reveals $750,000 stash
EDITORIAL: It's now illegal to carry cash?
Nye County cops hit the jackpot
Is no one else concerned that it's apparently now routine that police, finding an otherwise peaceable motorist in possession of a large sum of cash, simply take it?
Last Tuesday afternoon, Nye County Sheriff's Deputy Dan Pineau, while conducting a "drug patrol" on U.S. Highway 95 in Beatty, stopped a pickup truck for speeding and failing to stop at a stop sign. (For those who haven't passed through the charming little speed trap with the estimable chicken soup, 115 miles north of Las Vegas, the rapid lowering of speed limits as you enter Beatty makes it no great challenge for a deputy to catch someone failing to reduce speed quickly enough.)
Although no narcotics were found, a dog "hit" on the vehicle, which courts have held provides sufficient cause to rip the thing apart. Deputies found more than $750,000 in cash in the hidden compartments in the truck.
So they let the driver go, keeping the truck and the cash.
Let's not pretend to be naive. The fact that driver said she didn't know the money was there and had no idea who it belonged to doesn't make it too much of a stretch to conclude the woman -- knowingly or not -- was being used as a "mule" to transport illicit drug proceeds. That makes it a "good bust," as police count such things -- and the largest cash seizure in Nye County history, according to Sheriff Tony DeMeo, surpassing a similar $676,000 haul during a 2002 traffic stop in Tonopah.
It's enough to make an honest prospector give up his pan, his pick, and his mule!
Deputy Pineau did his job effectively. No one was hurt, and no one need lose any sleep over the financial loss to some unnamed drug kingpin.
Nor are Nye County deputies the only ones "getting lucky." Last year, police in Boulder City seized more than $500,000 stashed in the spare tire of a vehicle passing through the community.
Three observations may be in order:
1) If the drug dealers can write off these kinds of losses as mere incidental costs of doing business, the "War on Drugs" is lost.
2) While it's nice for local taxpayers to get this kind of budgetary relief in funding local police agencies, there is a risk in growing accustomed to such "windfalls." The risk is that so long as the money flows in, fewer and fewer questions may be asked.
3) What happens the next time a law-abiding citizen -- especially if he or she has an Hispanic name -- gets pulled over and says, "Yes, as it happens I've got $50,000 cash in the car. It's mine -- I earned it and saved it and I'm taking it to California to invest in a small business" or "to buy my son a classic Corvette for his wedding present" or "to bid at a collectors' coin auction"?
The money will be seized, won't it? The citizen (or his money, technically) will be presumed guilty, and the owner will be required to spend almost that sum on lawyers trying to get his cash back, won't he?
It didn't used to be illegal to travel around America carrying cash. Police seizing any large sums of cash they spotted used to be a phenomenon only of the corrupt Third World. :+textinb3
Is no one else concerned?
NoFreedomLeft wrote on April 07, 2008 09:17 AM:
Although no narcotics were found, a dog "hit" on the vehicle, which courts have held provides sufficient cause to rip the thing apart. Hey Deputy Dan your dog just 'hit' on another dog...you better get over there quick and see what he has up his....rip it up!!!
Nye County Justice wrote on April 07, 2008 09:01 AM:
Some of the cops in Nye County are rednecks who have little if any respect for the law they're supposed to be enforcing. Like sweating televangelists who spend their Sunday collections on escorts, they're worse than the sinners they're railing against.
FastTracker wrote on April 07, 2008 08:51 AM:
Hey, why don't we just do away with that pesky Article 5 within the Bill of Rights. You know, the one containing the phrase that no person shall “. . . be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law;”
It's already been effectively 'lawyered out' anyway. And while we're at it, why don't we just junk the entire Constitution? All that garbage about Liberty, Writs of Habeas Corpus and such is just SOOOO inconvenient.
Something more in line with the Napoleonic Code works much better in these 'modern', more 'enlightened' times.
b wrote on April 07, 2008 08:44 AM:
There are laws in this country that say if you don`t have any money on you,you can be arrested!
Yea, like that one Wanda, What if they found a vehicle full of unpaid tickets and normal debt related to drug use. "Nope, their not mine officer"
WandaR wrote on April 07, 2008 08:29 AM:
No mention of the fifth compartment with more 'justmoney'....how much was in there Reno 911?? Did they also find the compartment full of debt and unpaid bills? Where's the debt sniffing dogs??
timinator wrote on April 07, 2008 08:26 AM:
Isn't the mere presence of Federal Reserve notes proof that a crime (counterfeiting) has been committed?
free country? wrote on April 07, 2008 08:20 AM:
It's obvious that something is not right here. If the woman says that the money is not hers, then I'm assuming shes doing something illegal. Otherwise, if that's my money, sure hell I'm going to fight for it. However, cops around here are known to rough up people or worst shoot to kill like that Henderson ice cream woman vendor. So, she did the right thing by cooperating.
As far as carrying large amount of cash, its ludicrous that your going to get arrested for it. This is Vegas after all.
Tom wrote on April 07, 2008 08:00 AM:
What really angers the government is that the "illegal" drug dealers don't pay taxes like the legal drug dealers such as Bristol Meyers, Annheiser Busch, Merck, Philip Morris, etc. Anyone who thinks the government is trying to protect people from drugs is totally clueless. The "war on drugs" (with its abuse of our personal rights) is also a P.R. tool by which the government justifies its existence.
burden of proof wrote on April 07, 2008 07:51 AM:
The burden of proof lies on the accuser.
Oh' except for the cops who are probably taking a nice personal cut out of the find.
The money should have in plain view of anyone, surely no one in Nevada would attempt to steal it. (scarcasim)
Just because money is hidden does not mean it is drug money or illegal gotten. Even if a drug dog hits no drugs no crime. The dog cannot be questioned thereby making his hit an assumption.
I often carry thousands of dollars while traveling for various legal reasons. I suppose if I get stopped by the cops they will steal my money also.
Nevada being corrupt, suspects that everyone is also corrupt.
.
