YPD finds 16k during traffic stop

February 25, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Although police say three men found Tuesday in a pickup truck with more than $16,000 cash will probably not face drug charges, authorities still have a lot of questions.

The three, of Guatemalan descent, were detained about 7:20 p.m. after a traffic stop on an Interstate 680 north entrance ramp after police were called to the 1500 block of Wakefield Drive to investigate a suspicious vehicle.

Several pills were found in the truck, and the men were booked into the Mahoning County jail on charges of possession of dangerous drugs, but police Chief Robin Lees said Wednesday that investigators were having those pills tested to see what they are.

The men will not face city charges, but they still could be detained for federal immigration authorities, Lees said. A representative of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau, known as ICE, was seen at the police department Wednesday, but a call to an ICE spokesman was not returned.

Lt. Gerard Slattery of the vice squad said he has never had any experience with anyone from Guatemala during his time as a police officer. He said investigators would like to know why they are here, why they were carrying so much cash without an explanation and why they had seven cellphones with them.

“It’s kind of sketchy right now,” Slattery said.

Officers Anthony Trimble and Mark Sember were called to Wakefield Drive for a report of a pickup truck that had been there for several hours. As the officers were arriving, the truck drove past them in the opposite direction, reports said. The men inside the truck matched the description given by the person who called 911.

Reports said the officers turned around and pulled the truck over on the entrance ramp. When police spoke to the people inside, only the 45-year-old driver spoke English, and it was very poor, reports said. The driver told police they were on the street to look for an air compressor advertised online, but when they arrived at the address and knocked on the door, no one answered. The other two men were 56 and 40, reports said.

A police dog from Boardman was brought to the scene and sniffed the air around the vehicle and right away detected a strong odor of drugs, which led police to search the vehicle. Inside was $16,476 cash as well as the phones and a backup that had receipts and transactions recorded, some up to $30,000, along with airline tickets to several cities, reports said.

Jail records confirmed the men were released Wednesday afternoon.

Police find cash during traffic stops and at times thousands of dollars, but Tuesday’s find was unusually large, Slattery said.