Braselton police find massive hidden compartment under truck bed
Wednesday, March 14. 2012
Two North Carolina men were arrested after Braselton police found a large hidden compartment in their pickup truck that was storing a large amount of cash, according to an incident report.
During a traffic stop of a Chevy Silverado on Interstate 85 on Sunday, an officer said the driver and a passenger didn’t know each other’s names — although the men claimed to be visiting a friend or relative in Georgia.
While issuing the driver a warning for a revoked tag on the vehicle, the officer began a “consensual encounter” with the driver. The officer said when he questioned the driver about illegal items in the vehicle, the driver’s look changed to fear after the driver had been very talkative.
“I began going through my clarifying questions,” the officer wrote in his incident report. “The driver began to relax as I inquired about illegal guns, dead bodies, explosive, etc. The driver’s demeanor changed back to a look of fear when I asked him about illegal drugs.”
The driver allowed police to search the pickup truck, where they noticed the frame of the vehicle near the tailpipe appeared to be freshly painted. The bed of the truck was also coated in an after-market substance and the sheet metal was loose, according to police.
The officers used a fiber optic camera to look inside the suspicious area, where they found a small, black bag. The driver and passenger were detained, and taken back to the police department.
There, the officers forced open a hidden compartment that ran the entire length and width of the truck’s bed, according to police. It also featured hydraulic slides in the taillight area to open the compartment.
Police removed a small purse that contained a large amount of cash. A police report didn’t specify the amount of the money, which was bundled and wrapped in plastic.
The men denied ownership of the cash.
Police charged the driver, Saany Avila, 19, and the passenger Hecto Melo Marcial, 38, both of Concord, N.C., with operating a vehicle with a hidden compartment. They were taken to the Jackson County Jail.
Other Incidents
Other incidents reported to the Braselton Police Department last week included:
•dog bite on Pinecrest Lane, where a man said his seven-year-old son was bitten by a “big black ‘police’ dog” as the boy was riding his bike. The man didn’t see the incident, but he called Braselton police from Gwinnett Medical Center to report the dog bite. The man said his son was OK. An officer said the dog was possibly a German Shepard. The officer said he would contact Jackson County Animal Control about the incident, but if that agency didn’t follow up, the officer asked the man to call police again.
•criminal trespass at the Pilot Travel Center on Ga. Hwy. 53, where a man said an unknown person scratched the word “ass” into the hood of his car. The man believed that the suspect could have been a friend from high school, although the man couldn’t remember that person’s name.
•suspicious activity at a Tuscany Drive address, where an officer saw a vehicle parked near a town-owned property. The vehicle had a large roll of wire fence in the rear, along with other metal fences. The driver said he was scouting land for hunting in the area. The driver said while he was driving off the road, he ran over the fence and drug it out from the area. The driver said he would move the fence to allow safer access when he hunts. An officer got the names of three people in the vehicle and told them to leave the town-owned property.
•simple battery at a White Walnut Way address, where an officer was told that a man and a woman were standing near a vehicle arguing about pills. When he arrived, the officer said he saw an upset woman carrying a small child. Neighbors pointed to the woman, according to an incident report. The woman said an argument initially started over child care, but then focused on prescription medication. At the house, the man and woman “raced” to get the medication and the argument continued outside, where a couple of neighbors saw the man hit the woman. The man left before an officer arrived. The woman agreed to stay with family members.
•civil dispute at Ritzi Reruns on Ga. Hwy. 53, where a woman said she allowed a friend to borrow three dresses. The woman said she made several attempts to get the dresses back, but she later saw one of the dresses in the window of a consignment shop. The store owner removed the dresses from the sales floor and placed them in the back. An officer told the woman that he believed that the matter was a civil issue, but he’d give a report to an investigator.
•damage to property at Publix on Ga. Hwy. 211, where a woman said the driver of a GMC Yukon hit another vehicle when she opened her SUV’s door. A witness who saw the incident asked the driver if she realized that she damaged another vehicle, but the driver just looked at her and got into her SUV to drive away. The witness provided the license plate number of the SUV.
Braselton Arrest
The Braselton Police Department made the following arrest last week:
•Matthew Daniel, 22, 584 New Liberty Way, Braselton, failure to maintain lane and DUI.
While issuing the driver a warning for a revoked tag on the vehicle, the officer began a “consensual encounter” with the driver. The officer said when he questioned the driver about illegal items in the vehicle, the driver’s look changed to fear after the driver had been very talkative.
“I began going through my clarifying questions,” the officer wrote in his incident report. “The driver began to relax as I inquired about illegal guns, dead bodies, explosive, etc. The driver’s demeanor changed back to a look of fear when I asked him about illegal drugs.”
The driver allowed police to search the pickup truck, where they noticed the frame of the vehicle near the tailpipe appeared to be freshly painted. The bed of the truck was also coated in an after-market substance and the sheet metal was loose, according to police.
The officers used a fiber optic camera to look inside the suspicious area, where they found a small, black bag. The driver and passenger were detained, and taken back to the police department.
There, the officers forced open a hidden compartment that ran the entire length and width of the truck’s bed, according to police. It also featured hydraulic slides in the taillight area to open the compartment.
Police removed a small purse that contained a large amount of cash. A police report didn’t specify the amount of the money, which was bundled and wrapped in plastic.
The men denied ownership of the cash.
Police charged the driver, Saany Avila, 19, and the passenger Hecto Melo Marcial, 38, both of Concord, N.C., with operating a vehicle with a hidden compartment. They were taken to the Jackson County Jail.
Other Incidents
Other incidents reported to the Braselton Police Department last week included:
•dog bite on Pinecrest Lane, where a man said his seven-year-old son was bitten by a “big black ‘police’ dog” as the boy was riding his bike. The man didn’t see the incident, but he called Braselton police from Gwinnett Medical Center to report the dog bite. The man said his son was OK. An officer said the dog was possibly a German Shepard. The officer said he would contact Jackson County Animal Control about the incident, but if that agency didn’t follow up, the officer asked the man to call police again.
•criminal trespass at the Pilot Travel Center on Ga. Hwy. 53, where a man said an unknown person scratched the word “ass” into the hood of his car. The man believed that the suspect could have been a friend from high school, although the man couldn’t remember that person’s name.
•suspicious activity at a Tuscany Drive address, where an officer saw a vehicle parked near a town-owned property. The vehicle had a large roll of wire fence in the rear, along with other metal fences. The driver said he was scouting land for hunting in the area. The driver said while he was driving off the road, he ran over the fence and drug it out from the area. The driver said he would move the fence to allow safer access when he hunts. An officer got the names of three people in the vehicle and told them to leave the town-owned property.
•simple battery at a White Walnut Way address, where an officer was told that a man and a woman were standing near a vehicle arguing about pills. When he arrived, the officer said he saw an upset woman carrying a small child. Neighbors pointed to the woman, according to an incident report. The woman said an argument initially started over child care, but then focused on prescription medication. At the house, the man and woman “raced” to get the medication and the argument continued outside, where a couple of neighbors saw the man hit the woman. The man left before an officer arrived. The woman agreed to stay with family members.
•civil dispute at Ritzi Reruns on Ga. Hwy. 53, where a woman said she allowed a friend to borrow three dresses. The woman said she made several attempts to get the dresses back, but she later saw one of the dresses in the window of a consignment shop. The store owner removed the dresses from the sales floor and placed them in the back. An officer told the woman that he believed that the matter was a civil issue, but he’d give a report to an investigator.
•damage to property at Publix on Ga. Hwy. 211, where a woman said the driver of a GMC Yukon hit another vehicle when she opened her SUV’s door. A witness who saw the incident asked the driver if she realized that she damaged another vehicle, but the driver just looked at her and got into her SUV to drive away. The witness provided the license plate number of the SUV.
Braselton Arrest
The Braselton Police Department made the following arrest last week:
•Matthew Daniel, 22, 584 New Liberty Way, Braselton, failure to maintain lane and DUI.
Never consent to a search...limit your conversation to yes sir/no sir.
"Officer if you have any further questions please contact my attorney..Am I free to go".
..."AM I FREE TO GO!" repeat it..repeat it often.
Flex your rights or lose your rights.
Johnny Law is NOT your friend.
Law Enforcement = Extortion.
Be ware and Be aware.
-Woton
later we will send watchmen to check and make sure you have nothing in your home that you wont explain and share its origin to your neighbors, this will be done of course based on if someone says your looking suspicous, or acting wierd not helping the community driving expensive things or having too young of spouse or wrong sex spouse of course we will get folks to write a law allowing all this so it will be ok....
Eighth Circuit Appeals Court ruling says police may seize cash from motorists even in the absence of any evidence that a crime has been committed.
A federal appeals court ruled 8/18/2006 that if a motorist is carrying large sums of money, it is automatically subject to confiscation. In the case entitled, "United States of America v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit took that amount of cash away from Emiliano Gomez Gonzolez, a man with a "lack of significant criminal history" neither accused nor convicted of any crime.
If illegal drugs are involved, I have no problem with this. This how they move the money, now a hundred thousand & no idea whose it is or where it came from?? --Yea, I see a problem. But this ruling is subject to interpretation and If I give a "reasonable" explaination (to me), per this, they will probably still seize my money, where is that line...
'False or secret compartment' means any enclosure which is integrated into or attached to a vehicle and the purpose of the compartment is to conceal, hide, or prevent discovery by law enforcement officers of:(i) A person concealed for an unlawful purpose;(ii) Controlled substances possessed in violation of Article 2 of Chapter 13 of this title; or(iii) Other contraband.
--BUT does this code prohibit a "lawful" secret compartment, or are ALL considered illegal (what If I want to hide legal stuff from theft in my legal vehicle??)
I have had a chance to pick one of the Braselton's interdiction officer's brain and he told me how he recognizes a subject involved in criminal activity. If you haven't had this opportunity, you need to sit down and ask. It was very informative. I love the fact that police officers go beyond the initial traffic infraction if they have a "hunch". If they never looked further, they would miss a lot of criminal activity. They only people that don't want cops to do their jobs are the ones that are criminal and are afraid of getting caught. The officer I spoke with clearly stated, that if he didn't have any indication of criminal activity, he wouldn't ask for consent to search the vehicle! He said it would be a waste of time. He has even shown me a roadside interview where he located 50 pounds of marijuana, just by asking questions and reading the subject's body behavior.
Anyone this naive and ignorant must be a LEO.
[Are you guilty of something?]
Thats for a court of law to determine....not a LEO.
[Are you hiding something?]
The 4th amendment says "thats none of your damn buisness" officer!
[If you are not doing anything wrong, don't worry about it.]
Again very naive and ignorant of the real world.
“If you have 10,000 regulations, you destroy all respect for law.”- Winston Churchill
Live Free or Die
Resist the Police State
-Woton
Seems to me if the LEOs really did have the best intrest of the citizens at heart then they would focus more manpower on rooting out local dealers and users instead of traffic enforcement.