POLICE STOP DRUG-TRAFFICKING SCHEME

RIDGELAND -- Police here say they stopped another drug-trafficking scheme
in an Interstate-95 traffic stop Monday, seizing $120,779 and arresting an
illegal Colombian immigrant. Luis Henao, 47, of Woodside, N.Y., told
Ridgeland police he was paid $1,000 to travel from New York to Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., in the 1997 Ford Taurus station wagon, Chief Richard
Woods said. He was not charged because of the drugs, but was sent to
Immigrations and Naturalization Services in Charleston.

Two officers pulled over the southbound vehicle about 1 p.m. after
observing it cross the center divider line several times, the chief said.
Henao, who said he did not know the money was hidden in a specially
installed compartment in the back of the car, had left New York on Sunday,
intending to drive straight through to deliver the vehicle, Woods said.

"I'm assuming whoever he was going to meet was going to take the money out
of the compartment and put cocaine back in the compartment and come back
North," Woods said.

Woods said Henao was living illegally in the United States and had an
extensive criminal record. The station wagon, which was registered to
another person in New York, also was confiscated by police. The money was
hidden in a hydraulic-operated compartment with wires running to the
defroster. Woods said the officers received consent from Henao to search
the vehicle.

Henao was detained at the Jasper County Detention Center overnight and INS
took custody Tuesday.

Woods said the department may get title control of the station wagon after
the DEA completes its investigation.

The money from Monday's seizure has been sent to the Drug Enforcement
Administration office in Charleston, which will conduct an investigation.
After the money clears in about five months, Ridgeland police will net
$96,623 -- the seized money minus the DEA's 20 percent cut -- which will be
added to the town's drug-fund account.

Hardeeville, Ridgeland and the Jasper County Sheriff's Office all have
drug-fund accounts, where money seized from in-town and interstate busts is
sent. But Ridgeland's is the highest, at just over $17,000, compared to the
Sheriff's Office account balance of about $10,000.

On Oct. 10, the Sheriff's Office made its first interstate seizure in more
than two years, arresting a Miami resident and seizing almost $14,000.

Ridgeland's drug fund will swell from $17,000 to $132,223 after the money
from this seizure and the $22,000 seized in an early September I-95 traffic
stop clear.