NEW on WNCT.com: Local car accident turns up nearly a million dollars in possible drug money

By Andrew Doud
Reporter
Published: August 17, 2008

A car crash leads investigators to stumble across lots and lots of cash.

Authorities arrested a drunk driver after running he ran his truck off the road earlier this morning.

The wreck happened on Highway 33 heading toward Chocowinity just outside Grimesland around 9:00am.

But, the accident is the first piece of a puzzle authorities are still trying to piece together.

It started as a minor car accident and ended with the arrest of two men. The Pitt County Sheriff’s office and the State Highway Patrol shut down a stretch of Highway 33 this morning after a drunk driver ran his Chevy pick-up off the road.

But it wasn’t the accident that drew all the attention.

Highway Patrol Sergeant Robert Bowen said, “There was a large sum of money being transported in the vehicle located near the seen. At this time we’re looking into the origins of the money and maybe where it was going to.”

Just by looking at the wads of cash, troopers estimate the men had around one million dollars in their possession.

“At this time it appears it may have been packaged for drug activity,” said Bowen.

The Pitt County Sheriff’s Office initially received a call from someone saying there were suspicious people around their property.

When deputies saw that there was a car accident the highway patrol was called in to investigate.

Authorities arrested the two men and continued to looking for suspects when deputies came across the money.

Authorities also found this hidden compartment cut out behind a tool box in the bed of the truck.

Bowen said, “The suspects can use that hidden compartment to transport drugs and or money around the country, around the state or even here in Pitt County.”

Captain Doug Peterson with the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office tells us smuggling drugs in not a new problem in the county but to find something like this is unusual.

Authorities are still trying to identify the passenger who had two different forms of identification with different names.

One was an International Driver Document, saying he is originally from Mexico; the other is a North Carolina license.