TRAFFIC STOP IN JOHNSTON NETS $472,386

BENSON -- The Johnston County Sheriff's Office might reap a big windfall
after a deputy found $472,386 in the trunk of a car he stopped Tuesday for
a traffic violation on Interstate 95.

The two Miami men who were in the car told investigators they knew nothing
about the money, and they were not charged with any crime, Capt. Fred Dees
said. If no owner appears, he said, the cash could be forfeited, meaning
the sheriff's office would get most of it.

Sheriff Steve Bizzell called the cash seizure "the largest seizure of this
nature in the history of Johnston County."

Investigators suspect the money is related to drugs, though they found no
drugs in the vehicle, a 1995 Toyota Camry, Dees said. "What it amounts to
is that drug dealers will help incur the expense of narcotics
investigations in the county," he said. "It's a means and a way for law
enforcement to use the drug trafficker's money and put it to good use."

Deputy Jason Crocker was on patrol in a marked car just before noon Tuesday
when he stopped the Camry, which was headed south close to the Interstate
40 interchange near Benson, Dees said. After giving the driver a warning
ticket for following too closely, the deputy noticed that the trunk
appeared unusual and asked to search the car.

"He noticed that the trunk did not look like it should, like it was altered
or welded in spots," Dees said.

Inside the trunk, Crocker found 63 stacks of cash wrapped in black plastic
and tape inside a specially made compartment on top of the space used to
store the spare tire.

"It appears that a trunk compartment was taken out of another vehicle and
put on top of this one, leaving a gap of about four inches," Dees said.

Highway Patrol troopers arrived with a drug-sniffing dog, which "alerted on
the trunk," Patrol spokeswoman Renee Hoffman said. "Turns out it was the
money."

Authorities also seized the car, which was not registered to either of its
occupants, Isaac Ordonez, 38, and Nick Hurtado, 27. The two men told
officers they had not known the money was in the trunk and did not know who
owned it, he said.

The sheriff's office plans to turn the case over to the FBI, which will
investigate the money's ownership. That would put the case in the
jurisdiction of the federal courts, which would oversee any forfeiture of
the cash.

Hoffman said anyone claiming to own the money would have to explain where
it came from. "If the two guys say they've never seen the money, then they
give up complete ownership," she said.

Bizzell said the cash, if unclaimed, would help pay for sheriff's office
investigations and equipment. "And we're getting it in a way that's not
from the taxpayer," Bizzell said.

Staff writer Thomasi McDonald contributed to this report.