Small Arkansas district leads in seized drug-case cash

Of the $30 million in cash that Arkansas law enforcement officers confiscated in drug-connected arrests from 2012 through 2015, 39 percent came from the small 5th Judicial District comprising Franklin, Johnson and Pope counties.

Reports from the Arkansas drug director's office for those four years show that nearly $12 million in cash, 157 cars, 76 weapons and 14 other items -- including such things as all-terrain vehicles, campers, trailers, electronics and jewelry -- were seized by officers working in the 5th Judicial District.

In 2015, officers in the 5th District confiscated more than $3 million, which was nearly half of the drug cash confiscated in the entire state. It was the same in 2014, when money confiscations in the 5th District totaled more than $5.6 million, more than half of the state total of nearly $10.8 million for that year.

According to the drug director's records, the nearest judicial district to the 5th District in cash confiscations was the 23rd Judicial District in Lonoke County. Cash seizures there for the four-year period totaled more than $3.3 million. It tallied almost $1.9 million in cash confiscations in 2013.

Prosecutors in the districts say most of the money came from Interstate 40 traffic stops by Arkansas Highway Patrol Division officers, who are trained to detect whether motorists are drug-trade mules carrying drugs from west to east through Arkansas or drug-sale money from east to west.

Chuck Graham, 23rd Judicial District prosecuting attorney, said troopers work the interstate and other highways looking for drugs or drug money. They often find bundles of cash or drugs shrink-wrapped and hidden in secret compartments.

On Nov. 29, Arkansas State Police Trooper Derek Nietert stopped a blue Toyota pickup from California at mile marker 3 of I-40 in Crawford County for crossing the white line on the pavement. Smelling marijuana when he went to talk to driver Deth Amphayarat of Sacramento, Nietert asked for and received permission to search the vehicle, according to reports.

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There was a wooden dog box in the back that had three dogs in it, according to Nietert's report. He noticed that the box had thick walls, he reported. He drilled into one of the walls and discovered marijuana, according to his report. Officers dismantled the box and found 51 bundles containing 52 pounds of marijuana in false walls, floor and ceiling, reports said.

The same day in Crawford County at mile marker 8 of I-40, state police Cpl. Michael Bowman reported observing a car carrier cross the white line several times. He stopped the semi and examined the paperwork for the vehicles that driver Mark Huynh Wong of Anaheim, Calif., was transporting to various destinations on the East Coast, reports said.

Bowman noted that Wong appeared nervous, and he noticed that paperwork for one car bound for Paterson, N.J., didn't include an owner or the address for delivery, he reported. Bowman and another trooper searched the vehicle and found 30 pounds of heroin and fentanyl, a potent opioid, in 12 packages hidden in a secret compartment, according to reports.

"The amount of drugs or money that's found as a result of these stops depends a lot on the instinct, training, experience and aggressiveness of the officer," 5th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons said.

Most of the interstate drug arrests are made by the state police Highway Patrol Division's interstate criminal patrol officers, who concentrate on disrupting and dismantling drug couriers moving their products through the state, state police spokesman Elizabeth Campbell said.

Troopers who volunteer for the unit receive 80 to 120 hours of training, with annual updates in drug-interdiction tactics, she said.

"The units are not just looking for drugs, but also many other for crimes, including stolen vehicles, felons on the run and many other felony crimes on the highways of Arkansas," Campbell said.

Gibbons described the illegal drug industry as a business whose aim isn't just to infuse drugs into a community. It wants to get money out of the community.

"And the way to combat the business is the inventory," he said. "Take the drugs off the street and the reason for doing business, which is the money."

Gibbons credited the Highway Patrol's interstate criminal patrol for the large number of cash confiscations in his district and praised one trooper in particular, Chris Goodman, who worked out of the Troop J headquarters in Russellville.

He praised Goodman for his aggressiveness and dedication in intercepting drugs and the money they generate on the interstate, noting that Goodman often would venture out alone at night to pursue drug traffickers.

"He'd go out at 2 in the morning," Gibbons said. "He's a machine."

Goodman, who has been promoted and reassigned, was recognized for his success in 2015 when he was given the nation's highest award for criminal interdiction officers, the Bob Thomasson National Interdiction Officer of the Year Award.

Goodman isn't alone. Highway Patrol Trooper Vic Coleman of Troop H, based in Fort Smith, also has been recognized nationally for his work in drug interdiction. Coleman, who is now retired, was honored in 2015 for extraordinary achievement in criminal interdiction and for a career dedicated to the field of drug interdiction.

During 2014, Coleman was credited with seizing 833 pounds of marijuana, 22 pounds of cocaine, 4 pounds of methamphetamine, 3 pints of codeine and $246,800 in cash concealed in vehicles on I-40, records show.

State police spokesman Bill Sadler said other troopers and other local, county and federal agencies work diligently to take drugs off the streets.

Since drugs and drug money confiscated on the interstates often are destined for other states, many times local or state busts become federal cases.

Gibbons said that of the $3 million confiscated in the 5th Judicial District in 2015, most of it was turned over to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, with permission from a circuit judge, and those cases were prosecuted in federal courts, possibly in other states.

Gibbons said the 5th Judicial District turned over four cases to federal authorities in 2015 with confiscated cash totaling $2.7 million. Of that amount, the district received almost $200,000 to use for law enforcement purposes.

Graham said one of the things he likes about the state's asset-seizure law is that the money taken from drug trafficking is given to local law enforcement agencies to fight drug trafficking.

"Any money we get off Interstate 40 we don't have to get from the people, from the taxpayer," Gibbons said.

Gibbons said that before the state can take drugs and property associated with them, he must file a civil suit in circuit court against the property and prove that the property is illegal drugs or associated with the drug business.

Gibbons said people from whom drugs or drug-related property are confiscated normally don't contest the seizures because they would have to submit to giving sworn statements and testify in court about their activities.

If a judge orders drugs or associated property forfeited, according to Arkansas Statute Annotated 5-64-505, the drugs are destroyed, and seized property can be used by law enforcement agencies for official purposes for two years, after which they are to be sold.

Law enforcement can use vehicles for undercover or other official work, although Gibbons said often the vehicles aren't in good condition and it's better to sell them, with the money used for law enforcement work.

The statute also provides that a vehicle can be transferred to a school district for use in driver education courses.

According to the statute, 80 percent of seized cash or proceeds from the sale of seized property totaling less than $250,000 goes into a prosecuting attorney asset forfeiture fund. That money is distributed to various law enforcement agencies according to the proportion of their assistance in the operation that led to the property seizure, Gibbons said.

The remaining 20 percent of the cash and sale proceeds go to the state treasury as "special revenue" to be credited to the Crime Lab Equipment Fund, the statute says.

Any money or sales proceeds exceeding $250,000 goes to the Arkansas drug director to be transferred into the state treasury for deposit into the Special State Assets Forfeiture Fund.

The state's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council directs distribution of the money in the Special State Assets Forfeiture Fund, according to the statute, for drug interdiction, eradication, education, rehabilitation, the State Crime Laboratory and drug courts.

State Desk on 01/01/2017

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