There have been two big drug busts in Nebraska along the Interstate 80 "pipeline." I-80 is one of the quickest routes from California to the East Coast and where both of these drivers were arrested. So what happens to the drugs and vehicles?
The Nebraska State Patrol stopped an SUV with Oregon license plates for speeding near Seward, Nebraska just after 8 a.m. Friday. A drug-sniffing canine pointed the trooper to four large suitcases in the cargo area containing more than 100 pounds of marijuana.
The driver, 43-year-old Raul Verdugo Jr. of Ashland, Oregon, was jailed on a charge of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.
As Channel 6 News first reported Thursday night, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department uncovered packets of marijuana, 125 pounds, in a minivan that was also stopped for speeding. Two California men were arrested. Their names have not been released.
The drugs come from Mexico and make their way through Omaha eastbound. That means the cash paid for the drugs is going in the other direction. When investigators are involved in drug arrests like the one in Douglas County, the 125 pounds of marijuana will be destroyed. Usually, the sheriff could put a claim on seizing the minivan too, but this one was a rental.
"Sometimes we seize drugs, sometimes we seize profits, cash money," says Douglas County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Marty Bilek.
In this case, there was only a little cash involved. If there was a lot of cash, and many times there is, the case goes to court. Often times, most of the money goes back to the arresting agency. “We stop drug dealers on the interstate all the time,” says Bilek.
So how much money are we talking about? Here are four recent pending cases in federal court in Omaha. Douglas County has a $38,000 claim pending in a drug case. A few months earlier, deputies seized $250,000 in cash and a 2010 Honda Accord. Another recent claim pending from the Nebraska State Patrol involved $165,000 in cash. The Lincoln-Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force seized close to $8,400.
Add up just the ones before federal judges in Omaha, it’s $603,000 and if the courts agree no one has a claim to it, the arresting agency keeps 80 percent or $483,000.
That money cannot be used for budget items, only purchases to make a department better. Meaning it can buy specialty vehicles or training. The federal government has been clear about how money seized in drug cases can be used.
With so much on the line, it's easy to see why law enforcement watches the drug pipeline of I-80 so closely. Traffickers do whatever they can to hide the drugs. We've seen them placed in gas tanks or false walls, but the canines often smell right through them.
Two years ago, the Douglas County Sheriff's Department drug team seized $2.4 million. Last year, it was a little over a million dollars. Last summer, the sheriff debuted its new crime lab and canine office built with criminal's cash.
