DPS ARRESTS TULSA MAN ON MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGE

For the past few days, a Texas Department of Public Safety task force
has been in Grayson and Cooke counties to assist the locally-assigned
troopers with traffic enforcement. One of the results is the arrest of
a Tulsa man on a charge of money laundering.

DPS Trooper Mark Tackett said that troopers stopped 37-year-old
Stephen Chappelle on a traffic violation. Chappelle was going south on
U.S. Highway 75 about 1:20 p.m. Wednesday. During the traffic stop,
troopers became suspicious, or as Tackett put it, "noticed something
was not right." They asked for consent to search the vehicle, and
Chappelle denied that request. So, the troopers used a
specially-trained police dog who conducted an open-air search around
the vehicle and indicated there was something not right.

The resulting search uncovered $27,000 in cash hidden inside a false
compartment. Tackett said the money was packaged in such a way that
was consistent with drug trafficking. Troopers jailed Chappelle on a
third-degree felony charge of money laundering. He posted $10,000 bail
in surety bonds Thursday for his release.

Grayson County court records show that Chappelle was arrested in
Grayson County in 2002 on second- and third-degree felony drug charges
that resulted in a 10-year prison sentence. He was traveling with a
switchblade knife at that time.

Tackett explained that the task force, called the Enhanced Traffic
Enforcement Project, moves across Texas and has done so for about four
years. The troopers involved, Tackett said, "are looking for
everything illegal, whether traffic or criminal, and concentrating on
the rural highways of Texas."