The federal government has asked a federal judge to allow it to keep nearly $1.8 million in cash that a state trooper seized during a May traffic stop in Pope County.
A complaint filed Tuesday by the U.S. attorney's office notes that the cash -- specifically, $1,789,520 now in the custody of U.S. marshals -- was found after Trooper Chase Melder stopped a 2006 Toyota Sienna van after seeing it make two illegal lane changes on Interstate 40 near London.
The request to forfeit the money to the government notes that the trooper noticed "indicators of narcotics trafficking such as the use of a single key in the ignition and conflicting stories from the driver and the passenger regarding their travel plans."
After driver Perfecto Ruano gave Melder permission to search the vehicle, he began the search on the side of the interstate but ended up completing it at the Pope County sheriff's office after finding huge bundles of cash, the court document states.
A large bundle of currency was found in a pillow in the front passenger seat, where Walda Luna had been sitting, the filing states. It further alleges that the trooper found a safe hidden in a cardboard box that contained four large bundles of cash, two large bundles of cash in a trash-can box, three large duct-taped bundles of cash inside a Ninja Blender box and $3,250 cash inside a purse containing Luna's North Carolina driver's license.
Luna told Drug Enforcement Administration agents that she and Ruano, with whom she lived and has children, were traveling to California to visit her cousin, who was graduating from high school. But she gave two different first names for the cousin, the agents reported. Luna also said she was in the jewelry business and that the money was for down payments on new family businesses and the purchase of a house in California, according to the forfeiture request. It says Ruano said some of the money came from him and his trucking business, for which he had only one truck, and from gambling winnings given to him by his now-deceased brother.
Neither Luna nor Ruano's names could be found in a search of criminal records in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, indicating neither has been indicted on federal charges as of Wednesday.
Metro on 10/30/2014