Pubdate: Sat, 25 Jun 2005
Source: Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC)
Copyright: 2005 Sun Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/987
Author:  J.R. Gonzales, Knight Ridder
Note: Apparent 150 word limit on LTEs
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

DRUG BUSTS PAY OFF FOR POLICE

Departments Use Their Share Of Cash Seized For Training, Gear

The drug trade has been good to Ridgeland.

It's not that the Jasper County town of 2,500 welcomes the flow of
drug traffic along Interstate 95.

But the town's 13-member Police Department has benefited through
federal forfeiture laws that allow the agency to receive most of the
drug proceeds seized in its jurisdiction.

Since September 2002, the department has received $2.85 million in
drug-seizure funds, Ridgeland Police Chief Richard Woods said.

With the help of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, small
towns along major thoroughfares, used to transport drugs and cash
between Florida and Texas and the North, are filling their coffers
with drug money.

Federal laws allow authorities to seize drug dealers' property -
including cars, cash and houses - used to facilitate crime, and local
police get to keep 80 percent of the proceeds.

The DEA's Operation Pipeline program, a nationwide highway crackdown
that focuses on private vehicles used to transport drugs, has long
been active in such states as New Mexico, New Jersey, Illinois,
Florida and Texas, where major arteries for drug trafficking are located.

But as Atlanta has grown as a primary drug-distribution center, towns
in South Carolina, Georgia and other Southern states are patrolling a
portion of the interstate to nab drug traffickers.

The Ridgeland department has used seizure money to purchase items that
might not be available through city funds, such as Tasers and new
police cars.

"If we need something, we pretty much get it," Woods
said.

Recently, the department received a $500,000 check from the government
for efforts in stopping a Colombian national who was heading to Miami
from New York in October with a suitcase containing $640,000.

Woods said he would like to use that money to renovate the police
station and put in new holding cells, a more secure evidence room,
locker rooms and showers.

The department's annual budget is $3 million, according to town
manager Jason Taylor.

Sharing the wealth

Other S.C. agencies have benefited from federal asset forfeiture laws,
just not as much as those along I-95.

"The big-dollar checks are known to be around the interstate, around
I-95," said John Ozaluk, the agent in charge of Drug Enforcement
Administration offices in South Carolina.

The Florence County Sheriff's Office has collected more than $750,000
since 2003, according to figures provided by the federal Department of
Justice.

"Those funds are extremely important to us," Sheriff Kenney Booth
said.

The money has allowed the department to purchase 16 police
cars.

The drug money was used recently to pay for a conference on
methamphetamine at Francis Marion University, Booth said.

"We're just doing all we can to fight and combat the drug problem,"
Booth said.

Some agencies have benefited through similar state forfeiture laws, by
which they work with the state attorney general. Lexington County, for
example, has received about $500,000 in drug funds since the 2003-04
fiscal year.

The agency has spent more than one-third of that on training,
surveillance equipment and uniforms.

Since 2003, Lexington County has received nearly $15,000 from the
federal program; Richland County has received more than $150,000,
according to the Justice Department.

Forfeiture laws have been around since Colonial times, but in 1970
Congress enacted the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
Act, the first federal criminal forfeiture statute that allows for the
seizure of property - primarily money - obtained through
racketeering.

Law-enforcement officials say forfeiture laws are powerful tools in
the war against drugs. But opponents argue they are tantamount to
theft and open the door to racial profiling.

No arrest is necessary for forfeitures larger than $5,000, so long as
the money can be linked to drug activity, according to Agent Bill
Grant, a DEA spokesman in Washington.

"Normally, we try to help local law enforcement wherever we can. If
they call us, we will work with them in every state of the country,"
Grant said. "Mostly, we try to help them find a drug link to any money
they discover."

However, it is not necessary to work with the DEA. If a police
department makes a bust on its own and processes the case locally, it
can keep 100 percent of the proceeds, officials said.

Some cities have been embroiled in bitter fighting over control of the
money. Others have been forced to submit to monitoring by the Justice
Department.

Last month, the State Law Enforcement Division was asked to
investigate former Colleton County Sheriff Allan Beach on allegations
he improperly spent millions of dollars in federal drug-seizure funds.

While seized money cannot be used to hire personnel, it can be used
for police training, equipment, vehicles and, in the case of
Hogansville, Ga., a new police station, a walking trail and a hefty
donation to a youth group.

"This has really changed things for us. We have the best equipment and
the best-trained officers in this part of the state," city manager
Randy Jordan said.

In Refugio County, Texas, officials seized enough money to build a
police station and a jail.

In Sulphur, La., a small town near Lake Charles, police seized more
than $6 million in four years by patrolling a five-mile stretch of
I-10 five days a week.

Police in Hogansville, a one-stoplight town of about 2,600 people,
recently moved from a four-room house they once shared with the Fire
Department to a 12,650-square-foot building that cost $400,000.

Woods, who joined the Ridgeland Police Department in August 2002, is
convinced his department's efforts are making a dent in the drug trade.

"If you're going to hurt the drug trafficking, this is where you hurt
them," he said. "You're just absolutely killing them when you're
taking their money."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin