Nation / IN BRIEF: FLORIDA

SHERIFF'S OFFICE GETS HALF OF $50 MILLION

Florida sheriff's department that took part in a seven-year
money-laundering inquiry received half of the $50 million seized from a
marijuana smuggler--the largest single currency seizure made by U.S.
Customs--and it was the "culmination of several years of hard work on [the]
part of Customs and Monroe County Sheriff's Office," Customs Commissioner
Ray Kelly said in Miami. Customs seized the money in 1998 from convicted
smuggler Paul Edward Hindelang, who operated one of the largest
marijuana-smuggling organizations in the United States between 1975 and
1981, according to Customs. He was convicted in 1981 and sentenced to 30
months in prison.

At the time, he agreed to forfeit all of his drug money, which he said
totaled $640,000. But investigators discovered that he had hidden much more
in bank accounts and corporations around the world.