Posted on 09/10/2003 7:28:24 AM PDT by Stew Padasso
IRS sends 600,000 to area agencies
Cash is their share of funds taken from money-laundering efforts
Copyright 2003 Caller-Times Publishing Company
September 9, 2003, Tuesday
The Internal Revenue Service handed out more than $600,000 from cash seizures to area law enforcement agencies Monday.
The money was seized from drug dealers' money-laundering efforts.
The IRS got involved as one of the principals of the South Texas Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Task Force. The IRS's Criminal Investigation office gave $75,000 to the Live Oak County Sheriff's Office, $204,000 to the Kleberg County Sheriff's Office, $245,000 to the George West Police Department and $122,000 to the Bee County District Attorney's Office.
"We'll try to dedicate most of the money we receive in this manner for narcotics enforcement," Live Oak County Sheriff Larry Busby said. Busby added that some of the cash would fund an education program aimed at keeping children away from illegal drugs.
Kleberg County Sheriff Tony Gonzalez said his money would also go to the battle against drugs. "We can turn around and use the money to help with public safety," he said. "We feel that we need to make every effort to continue with these types of operations."
Gonzalez's first purchase will be a 40-foot central command trailer that will contain more than $80,000 in communications equipment.
The task force has seized $11.7 million since its conception in 2000, IRS special agent in charge Jack Harris said at a news conference.
Harris said the task force tries to give the majority of the seized money back to the law enforcement agencies that make the drug and money laundering arrests. "There'll be more checks later," Harris said.
The U.S. Treasury Department, the IRS' parent, keeps 20 percent of the seized cash and the task force takes about 5 percent for administrative costs, IRS spokesman David Batista said.
Not much, really. Just the names on the forms differ.
Another spiffy new toy for the JBTs. Kleberg County will sleep more soundly tonight.
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