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Your point is well taken. however, I know from experience there is a lot of drug trafficking in the Lima area. Without trying to sound racist, there are a lot of mega farms in the area of northwest Ohio and this can be used as a cover to move drugs from Texas to the Detroit area. There was/is a large Mexican mafia presence where there are migrant workers as well, sort of reminiscent of the Italian mafia with loan sharking and protection businesses operating in the New York area at the turn of the century.
I know there was a huge black-tar heroin ring that was in operation and several large drug organizations were broken up with connections to Texas, Detroit, Chicago, New York and Mexico.

Anyway, the telling tale in all this is the Federal involvement. You have a situation where the locals may have stumbled onto an ongoing Federal investigation. In case you aren’t aware, a Federal task force operates outside the knowledge of the local police departments. Even though the local police department, SO, and in Ohio, BCI (Bureau of Criminal Investigation) may have members on the Task Force, they do not and CAN NOT share information (intelligence) with their home departments. They sign what I believe was called a 5E letter that was issued by the Federal prosecutor assigned to the case which makes it a Federal Offense to release ANY information gathered during the course of the investigation.

OK, This cold be the investigative scenario. Now you have a TF (task force) looking at a target, could be the son, could be the guy who lives there, could be a third, yet unidentified party that has paid this guy to move the cash south (or any other direction) By the way, most successful drug dealers don’t touch the cash or the drugs themselves, there is always someone else to willing to do it for them.

Again, you’ve got a local agency responding to the report of a man stabbed (the son;) a suspect shot and killed by the homeowner; and a second suspect who is now in custody. The first thing the cops are going to want to know is why did the perps pick these victims? Was this a crime of opportunity or is there more to it? If one of the perps say they were after the cash, there has to be some knowledge OF the cash BY the perp.

If the cash is in the safe, how did the police know to open it? And where was the search warrant to authorize it. Was the safe already open upon the arrival of the police? Then the cash is in plain view and you have a sizable amount of cash, with drugs and weapons on the premises. There is probably a lot more to this than what’s been said.

If the Feds walked in and took the case, it’s because they have a better case. I would guess they are trying to get the guy to roll over on whomever may really own the money. It’s an old trick, catch a big fish by using a smaller fish.

Lastly, I am not making ANY determination on the merits of the case, I wasn’t there, I’m not privy to the facts in evidence, but I CAN say if anyone on this thread thinks this is nothing more than a money grab, they’re wrong. In the hundreds of cases I worked and the thousands of dollars, cars and property I seized, my paycheck remained the same week to week. You may be willing to sell your integrity for a few pieces of silver, but the vast majority of the officers I worked with on Forfeiture and at a Federal Task Force would not...nor would they be tolerated if they did.

Merry Christmas to you all!!!