DRUG DEALER SAYS HE SHOULD GET BACK CONFISCATED $96,950

A former drug trafficker wants federal agents to return nearly $97,000
seized from his East Side home because they never notified him -- even
though he was a fugitive at the time -- that they intended to keep the money.

Larry M. "Pops" Latham wants the money back, although he will be in prison
for the rest of his life. The money, he said, belongs to his father and
isn't proceeds from a cocaine-trafficking ring he operated.

U.S. District Judge James L. Graham, who three years ago imposed the
life-without-parole sentence on Latham, heard arguments yesterday on his
motion to force the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to return
the money.

The ATF contends the $96,950 found March 1995 in the attic of Latham's
house at 1385 E. Maynard Ave. was the proceeds from his cocaine trafficking
in the Windsor Terrace area. Latham's network supplied street dealers with
more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine and operated crack houses for seven years
on the East Side, authorities alleged.

Latham was a fugitive hiding out in Florida until his arrest in December
1995. A jury convicted him in October 1997, and Graham sentenced him nine
months later.

In a motion filed in November 1999, Latham argued that the money had been
given to him by his father for safekeeping.

He also contended he was never notified of the government's intention to
permanently confiscate the money. Such notification is required before a
criminal's property can be permanently seized.

In a countermotion, the government contended that agents mailed two
certified letters notifying Latham of the confiscation to his Maynard
Avenue address and also placed two ads about it in The New York Times.

"The government is not required to go across the globe trying to track down
a defendant," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer L. Henderson told Graham at
yesterday's hearing.

Latham also waited too long to file his motion for the return of the money,
Henderson said. The cash had been disbursed, his trial ended and Latham
sentenced before he sought the return of the money, she said.

But Paul Hensley, Latham's public defender, told Graham the government
erred. The certified letters and ads gave Latham's wrong middle initial --
"E" instead of "M," Hensley said. A man named Larry E. Latham used to live
in Columbus, he added.

The letters to Latham's former residence were returned to the government as
undelivered, Hensley said. In addition, he said his client did not discover
until September 1997, on the eve of his trial, that the government wanted
to permanently confiscate the money.