INVESTED PROCEEDS PAY LARGE DIVIDEND TO SHERIFF'S ACCOUNT

A convicted drug-dealer's fortune in mutual funds is paying off for
the Internal Revenue Service and the Boone County Sheriff's Department.

On Thursday, an agent from the IRS Criminal Investigations is
scheduled to give sheriff's Capt. Beverly Braun a check for
$110,261.58, a little more than half the proceeds forfeited by Gary
Banks of Columbia.

During the 1990s, a local bank tipped off law enforcement about large
deposits Banks was making into various investment accounts. The law
requires banks to report transactions of $10,000 or more, though Banks
often deposited smaller amounts in an attempt to avoid the reporting
requirement, the IRS said in a prepared statement.

In November 1997, after a two-year investigation, sheriff's deputies
searched Banks' apartment on Hinkson Avenue and found a shotgun,
marijuana and certificates for stocks and mutual funds. Detective Ken
Kreigh said today that the IRS participated in that search.

In 1997, Banks received a three-year suspended sentence for felony
marijuana possession. In December, a federal judge sentenced him to 15
months in prison for money laundering. In a plea agreement, Banks
agreed to surrender $204,107.

IRS agent Janine Meriweather called it "odd" for a drug dealer to keep
his money in mutual funds and stocks. "I've not come across anything
like that before," she said.

Meriweather said she was unsure when Banks' various investments were
cashed out. The money the IRS receives from the forfeiture becomes
general revenue for the investigations division.

The sheriff's department earmarks the money for drug enforcement and
drug education.

Local schools benefit from forfeiture money if local officers - not
federal investigators - make the original traffic stop or arrest of a
drug dealer.