DRUG BOOTY MAY AID FEDS, POLICE

Jan. 22 - Ka-ching.

The U.S. Justice Department and local law-enforcement agencies are banking
on a windfall from the millions of dollars seized in a recent marijuana-ring
bust.

Justice officials have confiscated more than $10 million in cash over the
past month in a marijuana investigation involving kingpin Robert Henry
Golding, 43, who killed himself during a traffic stop Friday in Kansas.

On behalf of the Justice Department, Denver-based U.S. Attorney Tom
Strickland's office will try to snag at least some of the $6 million seized
in Fort Collins, Pennsylvania and Iowa.

That stash rivals the $6.75 million the Justice Department spends annually
paying Colorado's team of 56 in the U.S. Attorney's Office and 64 support
staffers.

"It just shows the huge scale of some of these drug trafficking operations,"
Strickland said Friday.

Or, as U.S. attorney spokesman Jeff Dorschner said, "Putting it in that
context, it's a lot of dough."

The Justice Department is likely to share part of the loot with the Douglas
County Sheriff's Office, Aurora Police and Englewood Police, which helped in
the Drug Enforcement Administration investigation.

The DEA is expected to take 20 percent - about $1.2 million - "off the top
for administrative purposes," said agency spokesman Ron Hollingshead. That
money likely would go into the Justice Department's nationwide general fund.

Hollingshead insisted his agency doesn't profit from seizing money, "or we
wouldn't have a national deficit." The remaining 80 percent - about $4.8
million - is expected to be divided according to the percentage of time each
agency worked on the probe.

The final decision about which agencies get how much falls personally to
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

Colorado state government stands to gain nothing of the treasure trove,
given that the cash was confiscated under a federal search warrant, and
state officials weren't involved.

Kansas, in contrast, is seeking $3.8 million seized in Colby, Kan., by that
city's police department and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation under a
state warrant. The money was found in a rental car carrying Golding after an
illegal turn led to the traffic stop and his suicide.

"I guess you could say that Kansas really scored," Colorado Deputy Attorney
General Ken Lane said Friday.

On behalf of the Justice Department and local law enforcement, Strickland's
office will seek just under $6 million confiscated in 11 boxes containing
mostly $20 bills in a Fort Collins storage facility. The cash has been
fingerprinted, photographed and deposited for safekeeping at the Federal
Reserve in Denver.

The Justice Department also plans to claim rights to $47,000 from Golding's
bank account in Allentown, Pa., plus $5,000 seized from Golding's bank
account in Des Moines, Iowa.

Strickland's office plans a judicial process to formally and legally seize
the $6,047,525, during which anyone who can prove a claim to the money can
come forward.

"We're thinking that's probably unlikely," Dorschner said of possible
claimants to the drug money.

Although the stash in Fort Collins was the largest sum ever seized in
Colorado, federal officials note it's not the first big find here. In 1989,
officials seized about $4 million in cash from a semi-truck stopped stopped
at a port of entry. Eagle County, Vail and federal agencies shared the
booty.

More recently, 13 law enforcement agencies throughout Colorado enjoyed
$280,000 in shared assets with the Justice Department in 1998, while 14
agencies snagged $204,253 in 1999.

Whatever the amount seized in any given year, Strickland noted his office
works on a fixed budget.

The extra money could come in handy for Douglas County, Aurora and
Englewood, which would be required to use it for law enforcement.

Still in question is whether the dollars those municipalities stand to gain
would be subject to Colorado's Amendment One, the 1992 Taxpayer's Bill of
Rights, which requires rebates for taxpayers when government revenues exceed
certain limits.

State officials said Friday that the spoils likely wouldn't count as local
revenue under the law because they would be funneled through the U.S.
Justice Department. Federal funds are exempt from TABOR limits.

Denver Post staff writer Marilyn Robinson contributed to this report.