DRUG DOG'S WHIFF WORTH $230,000

LICKDALE -- State police seized more than $230,000 in cash that was hidden
inside a concealed compartment in a station wagon they stopped yesterday
morning on Interstate 81 just south of Lickdale.

It was the second time in two weeks that state police found a large amount
of cash hidden in a car driven on I-81 in Lebanon County.

At about 8:40 a.m. yesterday, according to state police, a trooper pulled
over the car carrying two Dominican men because there was no license plate,
only a temporary paper tag, on the vehicle.

The trooper said the men were so calm when he stopped them that he became
curious. The trooper said his curiosity turned to suspicion when his drug
dog, Hammer, signaled interest in the car's passenger door and left rear
trunk area.

The car was taken to Joe May's Exxon station, where police filmed officers
searching the car. Behind the rear seat, troopers found a hidden compartment
filled with the money.

The cash was in plastic-wrapped bundles and coated with two kinds of grease
in what state police said was an attempt to prevent dogs from being
attracted to it.

"It didn't help this time," said state police Lt. Harold Lacey. "A lot of
them are very inventive as to how they hide these items."

Police said the dog was trained to sniff out drugs, not money, but probably
keyed on the cash because of drug residue on it. No drugs were found in the
car.

While police searched the new Honda Accord station wagon, the two men who
had been traveling in it sat on a bench outside the gas station watching
traffic pass.

When asked where they got the money, one man said he bought the car three
days ago and did not know there was money in it; the other man said nothing.

State police said the men would be given a receipt for the money and the car
and would be released. Police will file legal papers in an effort to seize
the car under the state's drug proceeds and forfeiture laws.

"It's logical to assume that Interstate 78 from New York City linking up
with Interstate 81 that goes down South is a natural conduit for drugs and
drug-related cash," Lacey said. "They either have the drugs on them or they
have the cash."

On Nov. 21, after a traffic stop at the Fort Indiantown Gap exit of I-81,
police searched a 1994 Dodge Caravan carrying two people from Houston and
found $98,980 in a concealed compartment on the driver's side of the car.
The two were allowed to go, and the car and the money were seized.

Last Dec. 28, on I-81 near Grantville, state police seized $1.8 million in
cash hidden inside three junked vehicles chained to a flatbed truck headed
for Mexico. That seizure is thought to be the largest in the state.

Alejandro Martinez-Lopez of Monterrey, is seeking the return of the cash,
saying it was the legal proceeds of his auto-sales and money- exchange
business.

Police filed forfeiture papers in U.S. Middle District Court, saying the
money was likely drug proceeds headed to Mexico.