Scarborough Police gain BMW from drug ring

SCARBOROUGH — The Scarborough Police Department was awarded a number of forfeited assets, including a BMW, as a result of its work in busting up a drug ring that was shipping narcotics from New York and New Jersey to Maine.

In 2002, the Federal Government declared Cumberland County as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). As such, the area was granted resources from the Office of National Drug Control Policy for the formation of the Southern Maine HIDTA Task Force, which is made up of personnel from local police departments and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to combat multi-jurisdictional drug trafficking.

A task force involving Scarborough was working a case in which individuals were buying large quantities of drugs in New York and New Jersey that were smuggled into the United States along the southwest U.S. border, police said last week. These drugs were then transported to the southern Maine area for further distribution. The investigation resulted in the conviction of four individuals on federal drug trafficking charges.

Seized assets included: $187,000 in U.S. currency, 171 pounds of silver, a house under construction with $500,000 cash invested, a house with $35,000 worth of equity, a 2005 BMW 645CI with 14,000 miles, a 2005 Ford F150 King Ranch Pickup and a 2007 GMC Yukon Denali.

In most cases, the assets are sold and the proceeds are equitably divided amongst the participating agencies based on the level of participation by the officer from that agency. Pursuant to federal guidelines, these funds must be used for law enforcement purposes and cannot replace regular operating budgets.

Scarborough police have used these funds to purchase items that the department would not normally be able to purchase through its regular budget. In the past, this has meant outfitting all of its patrol cars with infrared spotlights to detect suspects or lost persons at night, providing an audio/video recording system for interview areas at the police station, and providing new light bars for the marked cruisers.

In the recent case, when federal authorities allocated the distribution of assets, the Scarborough Police Department was awarded a regular share of all of the assets with the exception of the BMW. As a reward for the outstanding job that Scarborough’s officer did as the case agent, the police department was awarded the BMW as a total asset. In a case where an asset is totally presented to an agency, federal guidelines dictate that the asset be retained by the agency for a two year period before the asset can be disposed of or sold.

The department has decided that the vehicle will be used in a number of low-mileage scenarios for a variety of purposes. First and foremost, the vehicle will be available for use on a limited basis by our officer assigned to the drug task force, in the event that it would benefit an investigation by its use. The vehicle will also be displayed for the public at community events such as Summerfest, with material to educate the public about our drug enforcement activities as well as a reminder that these assets will be seized from individuals engaged in illegal activities.

Other uses may include being used as a decoy for special enforcement details. No equipment will be installed in the vehicle and it will not be used to stop violators. It may, however, be the vehicle that is used to run radar from or to monitor red lights and stop signs, in much the same way that we have used public works vehicles in the past.