Police Take $290,000 From Truck On I-85
The Commerce Police Department confiscated $296,200 in cash from a southbound tractor-trailer rig on Interstate 85 last Wednesday.
Detective Chad Knight said his officers were getting training from Lowndes County officers in drug interdiction techniques when they pulled over the truck for an expired tag on the trailer.
Because the truck was traveling between two known “source” cities, New York and Laredo, Texas, because of excessive downtime in the driver’s log book and because the driver would not make eye contact with officials, police asked for consent to search the truck. The driver, Jesus Tomas Vela Jr., complied.
Officers found 30 packs of currency heat-sealed and wrapped with sheets of fabric softener and duct taped behind the wall of the sleeper, Knight said. The department’s drug dog later alerted on the currency, confirming that it had contained drug residue, according to Knight.
“The driver didn’t know anything about it,” said Knight with a laugh. “He signed a disclaimer on it, and we contacted the federal authorities.”
Federal agents will conduct a currency investigation, but it is expected that the department will be able to successfully condemn the currency. If that happens, the Drug Enforcement Agency will keep 40 percent of the money, and Commerce and Lowndes County will split the rest.
