$24 Million in Suspected Drug Cash Piles Up

More than $24 million in cash believed generated by illegal drug sales in Southern California has been seized at Los Angeles International Airport and in the harbor area during the last year, according to statistics compiled by three government agencies.

Joe Charles of the U.S. Customs Service said Thursday that his agency confiscated $13.3 million from Feb. 1 through Oct. 28 in two operations, one code-named “Buck Stop,” a nationwide operation, and another “Top Sail,” a Los Angeles program.

At the same time, Dwight McKinney, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Los Angeles, said the DEA had seized $6.5 million at the airport from October, 1985, through September of this year.

Lt. J. R. Schiller, an administrative officer with the Los Angeles Police Department’s narcotics division, reported that a joint police-sheriff-DEA task force also had seized about $4.4 million at the airport in the first nine months of this year.

When the six-month “Buck Stop” operation ended in April after seizure of nearly $30 million in smuggled currency nationwide, Charles said that Los Angeles Customs Commissioner Quintin Villanueva ordered the local operation to continue.

Charles declined to say what specific steps have been taken to uncover the smuggled cash. But generally, he said, the agency has targeted individuals who meet certain “profiles.”

In the course of their LAX operations, investigators have discovered more than $2 million stuffed into air-conditioners being shipped out of the country and $1.9 million stashed in a tool box and a battery charger.

The government is empowered to seize suspected funds under federal drug statutes. It is a felony to fail to report the import or export of more than $10,000.