Pubdate: Mon, 29 Dec 2003
Source: Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (WY)
Copyright: 2003 The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
Contact:  http://www.wyomingnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1217
Author: Juliette Rule
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm ( Asset Forfeiture )

DRUG DEALERS HELP FUND WAR AGAINST THEMSELVES

CHEYENNE - Don't tell drug dealers, but they are helping fund the war
on drugs.

With a little help from vigilant police officers and a state agency
looking for matching federal grants, that is.

The Byrne Discretionary Grant fund demands that Wyoming have programs
in place to combat violent crime and serious offenders. But to get
that help, the state must pony up 25 percent of the cost of the
program. And none of which can be federally funded, says a brief
supplied by the Department of Justice.

That stipulation makes drug dealers' milk money fair game in the feds'
war on drugs.

In fiscal year 2002, more than $94 million was doled out to states by
the purveyors of the Byrne grant program, according to the Department
of Justice. Wyoming's share of that, which is based partly on
population, funds training, investigation and record-keeping systems.

It is shared by drug-combating units staffed by city cops, sheriff's
deputies, troopers and Division of Criminal Investigation agents
across the state. Which town, city or county gets how much is
determined by need, said Kebin Haller, deputy director of DCI.

As of late November, DCI had collected more than $1.4 million in
property and cash from drug dealer investigations in 2003.

That's a drop in the bucket for the bean counters calculating the cost
of the war on drugs, but it's a great deal more than the $189,867
collected last year. But don't mistake dollars and cents as a measure
of law enforcement's success.

"You have to keep it in perspective," Haller said, adding that a few
of those cases were opened in 1991.

Most were opened in 2001 and 2002 and involved cash and cars, though
in some cases, houses and other property can be seized.

The smallest amount tallied in a spreadsheet supplied by Attorney
General Pal Crank's office is a mere $22 from a case opened in 2000 by
the Southeast Enforcement Team.

The greatest amount was $327,000 from the same team and a 1991
case.

While that is a lot of money, sums of $100,000 and $200,000 are cited
a half-dozen times in that three-page record dated Nov. 24.

Amounts of a few grand are far more common.

That's not surprising to Haller, who said DCI has great success along
the Interstate 80 corridor.

"Wyoming is not known as a source state," he said. "(It's) traveling
through. It's not destined to stay here."

He explained that means only a small percentage of what troopers find
is produced here or even destined to stay here.

Troopers on Frontlines

The responsibility of catching the bad guys dealing in contraband
becomes much the responsibility of the Wyoming Highway Patrol because
drugs travel the interstates, Haller said.

I-80 is the most direct route west-east, and that happens to be the
direction of most gophers' travel.

A shark could get lost in that sea of law-abiding fishes, Haller said,
adding that certainly not every gram or kilo is uncovered by officers
who must have a reason to pull over a car and ask to search it.

With a stop for a traffic violation made, the officer begins asking a
few questions.

"Things don't add up," Haller said. "The passenger and the driver
don't agree on where they're going. There's no luggage. The car is
filled with trash or air fresheners or both. The (officer) can smell
(contraband). So then they ask to search the car."

An affirmative response brings a drug-sniffing dog and more
officers.

Whatever is found is field tested then analyzed later at the state
crime lab. Any confiscated money is stored for a short time then
converted to a cashier's check, state attorney Cindy DeLancey said.

But even the packaging materials used to carry the money are
considered evidence - in case there are traces of contraband on it.

In other cases, cars and other property - though that's not often
houses or ranches in Wyoming - are seized in a civil process, DeLancey
said, adding that process doesn't require prosecutors to secure a conviction.

In the meantime, seized cars are stored, just as is the contraband, in
a secured facility here.

Once they are deemed void of any useful evidence, the cars are
detailed, top to bottom, though sometimes that requires more than a
handy-vac, Haller said.

"We've had cases where we've taken the gas tanks off cars and hauled
them in to federal court just to show the jury that the tank had been
modified," he said. "Instead of holding 16 gallons of fuel, it held
only 12. The gas gauge was off, but only the driver knew it."

That four-gallon modification created storage space for contraband.
That trick isn't new, and it rarely escapes the keen nose of a K-9
unit. Going once, going twice

With the de-modified cars ready, DCI coordinates an auction at the
state lot on Westland Road. Bids begin at market value, according to
DCI, and happen a couple times a year.

Those proceeds also are folded into the Byrne grant application
process, which begins in January.

That trail created by dealers leads DCI agents to share information
about its suspects with agencies in other states. Sometimes that leads
to bigger arrests.

Haller talks about a bust made by troopers recently: Two adults and
two teens were found to be carrying five kilos of alleged cocaine as
they traveled I-80. "We called California, told them we had them, and
now California is executing search warrants on the home," he said.

Wyoming taxpayers might not care about solving another state's drug
problem, but to DCI the war on drugs is about cooperation and global
responsibility. "I don't believe drugs are just a Wyoming problem or
just a Cheyenne problem," Haller said. "For drugs to get here, they
had to go through another state."

And though drugs generally are only passing through the Cowboy State,
Wyoming has its own insatiable appetite for narcotics, DeLancey added.

So what DCI did for California might be a favor returned.

"If you have an investigation, you need to examine all other leads,"
he added.

As for the seized narcotic itself?

"It's incinerated once we get a an order of destruction from the
court," DeLancey said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake