Pubdate: Tue, 22 Jul 2003
Source: Island Packet (SC)
Copyright: 2003,sThe Island Packet
Contact:  http://www.islandpacket.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1514
Author: Glenn Maffei

INTERSTATE 95 ARREST YIELDS $4.2 MILLION IN DRUGS

Ridgeland Police Chief Richard Woods shows off the 30 kilograms of cocaine
his officers confiscated Sunday during a traffic stop on Interstate 95.

RIDGELAND -- A Sunday morning traffic stop on Interstate 95 turned into
perhaps the largest cocaine bust in Jasper County history when Ridgeland
police seized 30 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated value of $4.2
million. Standing before 30 bricks of cocaine, each weighing a kilogram, or
2.2 pounds, Chief Richard Woods told those gathered at a Town Hall news
conference Monday that he believed the drugs originated in Colombia, were
taken by boat to Miami and were headed to Columbia, the state capital.

David Simon, 34, of Atlanta was alone driving his Buick rental car north on
I-95 in Ridgeland when he was pulled over by a police officer at about 7:30
a.m. for failing to stay in his lane, the chief said. A visibly "nervous"
Simon told police there were no drugs in the car and he wouldn't consent to
a search, but the town's police dog, Tony, sniffed drugs, which gave the
police probable cause to search the vehicle, Woods said.

Police found the 30 bricks in a duffel bag in the trunk, Woods said. Police
arrested Simon and booked him into the Jasper County Detention Center on
$750,000 bond. He faces federal trafficking charges that carry a penalty of
at least 30 years in jail, Woods said.

Woods said the drug trafficking problem has grown during the past two
decades.

"It's not a trend," he said. "It's been going on for 20 years. It's a
pipeline."

Before Sunday's bust, the Ridgeland Police Department has netted from the
interstate a variety of drugs with a street value of $800,000, as well as
more than $300,000 in drug money, since Woods was hired as the town's chief
last August. Last month, the department, which is responsible for eight
miles of the interstate, seized 2 kilograms of hashish estimated at $200,000
from a vehicle traveling south.

The department's largest money seizure was last November, when a traffic
stop yielded $120,779 and the arrest of an illegal Colombian immigrant,
Woods has said. The man, who said he did not know the money was hidden in a
specially installed compartment in the station wagon, told police he was
paid $1,000 to travel from New York to Florida, Woods said at the time.

Beginning in September, the Ridgeland Police Department will have a
full-time drug team, paid for by combining money from a federal grant with
the department's drug fund, which includes an 80 percent cut of seized drug
money, Woods said.

The James F. Byrnes Federal Drug Control Grant will absorb $58,000 of the
cost and the department's drug fund will contribute $14,500 toward a
Chevrolet Tahoe, equipment and a full-time officer who will be added to the
nine-member department, Woods said.

From September to January, the department's drug teams patrolled I-95
looking for drugs and drug money as an experiment, Woods said.

In those months, two officers were trained on spotting drug traffickers.
With the grant, Ridgeland can patrol the interstate day or night without
taking officers from in-town patrols.

"Since Chief Woods has been here, things have really got going," said Town
Councilman Gary Hodges, "and there's hopefully going to be a lot more of
this."
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