SHADY CASH FATTENS TOWNS' COFFERS ALONG DRUG ROUTES

HOGANSVILLE, Ga. -- For years, this small town nestled in the pine forests
off Interstate Highway 85 has struggled to keep its Police Department
financially afloat. But the town is riding high these days on a $2.4
million windfall--thanks to drug dealers who happened to be passing through.

Three or four days a week a police officer aided by a drug-sniffing German
shepherd named Bella parks his cruiser on the side of the expressway,
looking for any vehicle that seems suspicious--a broken taillight, an
expired license plate or simply a car that changes lanes excessively. That
is all it takes to pull over a suspected drug courier, and if the officer
is lucky, he confiscates not only drugs but also bundles of money.

With the help of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, small towns
across the country are filling their coffers with drug money as a result of
federal asset forfeiture laws that allow authorities to seize drug dealers'
property, including cars, cash and houses used to facilitate crime. Local
police keep 80 percent of the proceeds, and 20 percent goes to the DEA. If
a police department makes a bust on its own and processes the case locally,
it can keep all of the proceeds, officials said.

Small towns with dwindling populations and shrinking tax bases have
confiscated millions of dollars by forming highway interdiction units. Once
barely able to buy police cars, towns along major thoroughfares that are
used to transport drugs and cash between Florida and Texas and the North
are building new police stations and equipping officers with bulletproof
vests and new cars.

The DEA's Operation Pipeline, a nationwide highway interdiction effort that
focuses on private vehicles used to transport drugs, has long been active
in states such as New Mexico, Illinois, Florida and Texas, which have major
arteries for drug trafficking.

But as Atlanta has grown as a primary drug-distribution center, towns in
Georgia and other Southern states are taking advantage of their prime
locations by patrolling a portion of the interstate highways.

In 1970 Congress enacted the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
Act (RICO), the first federal criminal forfeiture statute that allows for
the seizure of property, primarily money, obtained through racketeering.

Law enforcement officials say the law is a powerful tool in the war against
drugs. Opponents claim it encourages racial profiling.

Some cities have been embroiled in bitter fighting over control of the money.

While seized money cannot be used to hire personnel, it can be used for
police training, equipment, vehicles and, in the case of Hogansville, a new
police station, a walking trail and a hefty donation to a youth group.

"This has really changed things for us. We have the best equipment and the
best-trained officers in this part of the state," said City Manager Randy
Jordan. "What we do here is not a secret. People know if you come to
Hogansville and commit a crime, you are going to jail."

Officials in Refugio County, Texas, seized enough money to build a police
station and a jail. In Sulphur, La., near Lake Charles, police seized more
than $6 million in four years by patrolling a 5-mile stretch of Interstate
Highway 10.

Police in Hogansville, a one-stoplight town of about 2,600, recently moved
into a 12,650-square-foot building that cost $400,000. Five years ago, the
department had only three police cars, and two of the vehicles were
inoperable. Now it has 13 shiny new cars equipped with state-of-the-art
technology, including laptop computers.

The city isn't ashamed to let people know the source of its newfound
wealth. The rear bumpers of police cruisers advertise that the cars were
bought with seized funds. In two years since the program began, the
department has supplemented its $630,000 annual budget with $2.2 million in
cash and $200,000 worth of vehicles, including a Range Rover, pickup trucks
and cars that were auctioned.

"We read the newspapers, and we saw what other towns were doing, so we
said, 'Why can't we?' Now, we've got agencies calling us from all over
asking us how to do it," said Police Chief Guy Spradlin. "We want the
community to know that we are taking something from the drug dealers. We
are taking something bad and making something positive."

The biggest of the 11 busts in Hogansville occurred in October, when
Officer John Starnes saw a pickup truck with Texas license plates pull off
I-85 and into a gas station about 1:30 a.m. He stopped the truck, which had
a broken taillight, and later found $654,000 in a hidden compartment in the
tailgate.

Starnes, who is in the National Guard, made the bust on his last day on the
job before heading to Iraq. No drugs were found. Police kept the cash and
the truck, gave the men $500 and took them to the bus station. The seizure
was never contested.

During the first week patrolling I-85, police in Grantville, Ga., about
seven miles north of Hogansville, seized $43,000, a Ford Expedition and a
Chevrolet Impala.

"It just shows how much goes on through here," said Grantville Police Chief
Jerry Ramos, referring to the drug couriers. "They know the area is rarely
patrolled, and they come through here with tons of money and tons of drugs
on their way to Atlanta. They never expect to get busted in these rural
places."

Several police departments have been accused of targeting Hispanic and
African-American drivers. While some departments send officers away for
training by the DEA or others, many do not.

In Villa Rica, Ga., off Interstate Highway 20 about 30 miles west of
Atlanta, police confiscated about $2 million from 1998 to 2003, enough to
build a new police station. But the city curtailed its program after the
Justice Department found that the officers had engaged in racial profiling.
A federal report said officers would shine spotlights at oncoming cars to
"determine the skin color of the occupants."

The department ordered Villa Rica to develop an anti-profiling policy, and
now it monitors the Police Department's vehicle stops and seizures.

Bernard Harcourt, a University of Chicago Law School professor, said that
although it clearly is unconstitutional to stop someone based solely on
race, the courts have held that race can be one factor among many.

"When you have a stop involving a rented car, a Texas license plate, a map
on the dashboard and a Hispanic driver, it is not clear from court
precedent that it would be unconstitutional to include that the driver is
Hispanic in the profile," Harcourt said. "The result is that race shows up
disproportionately in statistics."

Police officials insist they never engage in racial profiling. But they
acknowledge that often the people stopped are eager to get out of town and
rarely return to fight in court for their cars and money.

"If you are properly trained, you are looking for key indicators, and when
the drivers get close to you, you can see it. It sticks out like a sore
thumb, said Officer Michael Red.