POLICE DOG LEADS TO $700,000 IN BILLS COVERED BY DRUG RESIDUE

The Nye County Sheriff's Office seized nearly $700,000 in cash Wednesday
after a police dog detected the presence of drugs in an 18- wheel tractor
trailer during a traffic stop.

Deputy Bill Stark stopped the truck on U.S. Highway 95 in Tonopah about 2
a.m. and received the driver's consent to search it during a drug
interdiction investigation, Sheriff Wade Lieseke said.

The dog, named Rico, alerted Stark to a chest of drawers in the trailer and
signaled that he detected drugs, Lieseke said. The officer discovered the
cash inside the chest, and a test revealed drug residue on the bills, he said.

The presence of drug residue makes the cash eligible for forfeiture by the
department to use toward anti-drug efforts, Lieseke said.

Investigators did not think the driver was aware he was hauling the money,
he said.

"Every nickel we spent on the canine program over the past 12 years
certainly paid off today, as every penny spent will be returned to the
county a hundred times over with this seizure," Lieseke said.