POLICE FIGHT FOR $1.8 MILLION FOUND IN RAID

PLANTATION -- The police said they found it in an old pickup, stuffed
in five military-style ammunition boxes, rubber-banded and sealed with
packing tape: $1.8 million in cash, most of it in 10s and 20s.

Two years after Plantation police raided a storefront palm reader's
shop along State Road 7, the city has launched a court fight aimed at
securing legal control of the money.

But the palm reader and her kin have contended the cash is theirs.
They want it back, their attorney said.

City attorneys and police claim the money is linked to illicit drug
sales and was seized during a narcotics investigation.

Across Florida, state and federal law-enforcement agencies seize cash
and property taken in busts.

"It's not unusual during the execution of a search warrant to find
funds, weapons or drugs," said Stephen L. Ziegler, the attorney
representing the South Florida city in the case. "The only thing
different in this case is the amount. It's a very large amount."

Plantation officers in October 1999 arrested Frank Don Alvarez, 56,
who was charged with trafficking cocaine and possessing drug
paraphernalia. In March of this year, he pleaded no contest to
attempted trafficking in cocaine and was sentenced to five years
probation, court records show.

At the time of his arrest, Alvarez told officers the money was his
mother's life savings.