Tue, 15 Jan 2008

Kimball County seizes $69,040 in traffic stop

If I randomly pulled over cars and seized any cash I found in them, they'd call it highway robbery. Why don't they call it that when it's the police doing the robbing?

Note: The entire article is reproduced below as these kind of newspaper items have a habit of disappearing, and this incident is so over the top as to demand preservation.

Christmas came early last year for a new Kimball County Sheriff's deputy.

Deputy Chris Engel, 25, had been on the job just two weeks when a routine traffic stop Dec. 20 turned into the biggest cash seizure the Nebraska county has ever seen.

Engel pulled over a Salt Lake City, Utah, resident whom he suspected of speeding on Interstate 80 near the town of Kimball.

The driver's story didn't add up, Engel said, so he did a little more investigating. In the end, $69,040 in cash was taken from the car. Officials suspect the money is connected to a drug-trafficking operation, he said.

The driver was not arrested — or even ticketed for going 10 mph over the 75 mph speed limit. (He was warned.) But the investigation is ongoing, Engel said. The Nebraska State Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Agency are assisting in the investigation.

It was the first big cash seizure Kimball County has seen, said Sheriff Tim Hanson. With Interstate 80 running through the Panhandle county, he believes there are ample opportunities to make a dent in drug operations. But in such a sparsely populated county with few resources, it has been difficult to devote deputies' time to patrolling the Interstate, he said.

"Chris is a very aggressive young deputy," Hanson said.

Investigators don't know if they will be able to connect the money to a drug operation, Hanson said, but the important work already has been done.

"The big thing is he grabbed 69 (thousand dollars) and took it away from them," Hanson said of the money seized. "That's going right straight to the heart of the matter."

(link) [Omaha World-Herald]

/Politics | 4 writebacks | permanent link

On 1/15/2008 09:33:28
Erik wrote

On 1/15/2008 11:15:52
Jake Wenger wrote

On 1/16/2008 09:42:39
Arwin wrote

Different privacy standard

On 1/17/2008 21:21:06
Dave H wrote

Warrants are NOT the issue here!

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