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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
National
Michael Finnegan

FBI and San Bernardino County sheriff accused of breaking law by seizing marijuana cash

FBI San Bernardino County Empyreal Barstow California Kansas Los Angeles Mojave Desert United States

LOS ANGELES — The driver of an armored car carrying $712,000 in cash from licensed marijuana dispensaries was heading into Barstow on a Mojave Desert freeway in November when San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies pulled him over. They interrogated him, seized the money and turned it over to the FBI.

A few weeks later, deputies stopped the same driver in Rancho Cucamonga, took an additional $350,000 belonging to legal pot stores and gave that cash to the FBI too.

Now, the FBI is trying to confiscate the nearly $1.1 million bounty, which it might share with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. The FBI says the money is tied to federal drug or money-laundering crimes, but has specified no unlawful conduct and charged no one with a crime.

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