POTTER SEEKS TO SEIZE $200,000 TAKEN IN I-40 STOP

Potter County authorities filed a motion Monday to seize more than
$200,000 taken last month during an Interstate 40 traffic stop.

The motion, filed in 181st District Court, states that prosecutors
think the money is illegal proceeds from a felony offense and that an
Ohio man planned to use it to commit another crime.

On June 20, a Department of Public Safety officer patrolling west of
Amarillo spotted a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis that passed the trooper
traveling westbound, according to an affidavit filed by the officer.
The officer noticed the driver was not wearing a seat belt and pulled
the car over.

As the officer talked to the 20-year-old driver, the passenger leaned
forward, opened the glovebox and gave the officer a car rental
agreement. The trooper asked the driver where the men were going ,and
he said they were headed to a wedding.

When he was asked about the trip, the passenger, a 30-year-old Ohio
man, said he was traveling to a food show in Arizona near Tucson. The
man said his mother owned some restaurants and wanted some new equipment.

The trooper noticed that both men were nervous and their hands
trembled during his interview. He became suspicious and called in a
backup officer with a K-9 dog, which alerted on the vehicle.

Both officers searched the vehicle, and an agent from the Panhandle
Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force found a blue backpack with
several bundles of $100 bills. The money totaled $210,040.

Both men also discussed the money while they were in the police
cruiser, which videotaped their conversation. The trooper contacted a
deputy in Zanesville, Ohio, who contacted the passenger's grandfather,
who said money was taken out of a safe at his residence. The Ohio
deputy said he thought the grandfather did not know how much money was
in the safe and that it was not the grandfather's money.

The men were not arrested, but authorities seized the money as
contraband and deposited it in a local bank.