SEIZED DRUG MONEY TO BENEFIT RURAL POLICE

CHATTANOOGA - An illegal immigrant has pleaded guilty to smuggling $1.1
million - drug money that will be forfeited to the rural sheriff's
department that found the cash hidden in a car.

Speaking through a court interpreter, Ezequial Guzman-Cornejo, 23, entered
the plea at a hearing where a prosecutor said Guzman-Cornejo was en route
to Texas from New Jersey where he had sold 80 kilos of marijuana smuggled
from Mexico.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry Piper said Guzman-Cornejo was traveling on
Interstate 75 in a white Ford Excursion when the car was stopped for
tailgating by Bradley County drug officers Jan. 12.

U.S. District Judge R. Allan Edgar on Friday set an Aug. 9 sentencing
hearing after Guzman-Cornejo entered the plea to a charge of attempting to
evade a currency reporting requirement. The judge said that after any
imprisonment the illegal immigrant likely would be deported.

Piper said Guzman-Cornejo, who told officers he was born in Mexico,
attended school for about two years and has lived in the United States
illegally most of his life, did not implicate anyone else in the case and
agreed to forfeit the money.

No drugs were found in the car. With no one claiming the cash, it will go
to the Bradley County Sheriff's Department, with a total annual budget of
less than $5 million.

Joe Bartlett, managing attorney for asset forfeiture at the Tennessee
Department of Safety, previously described the $1.1 million as the largest
amount of cash forfeited to a local law enforcement agency in his 18 years
with the state program.

Piper said Guzman-Cornejo was married about two years ago in Fresno,
Calif., and had been in New Jersey for several months when he was arrested.

Piper told the judge the government dismissed an immigration charge.

Guzman-Cornejo's attorney, Arturo Hernandez of San Jose, Calif., declined
comment after the hearing.