The Michigan village of Hamburg Township owes New York City drug dealers a thank-you note, says the Village Voice. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York office is dividing up the $18.6 million in cash it seized from New York City drug dealers last year among the police agencies that helped the agency make the cases. The New York Police Department got nearly $5.1 million as part of the Justice Department’s Equitable Sharing Program.
More than $3.5 million of the forfeited money went to 24 out-of-town agencies–including $6,692.96 to Hamburg Township, an hour west of Detroit. With 15 full-time officers, its police department was the smallest agency getting cash from the New York DEA this year. Hamburg is a 23,500-person community that recently recorded its first murder in five years–a husband killed his wife. To get the drug money, Hamburg police passed along a tip to the Detroit DEA, who passed it on to their colleagues in New York. Based on that information, agents arrested two dealers in Brooklyn. Hamburg’s $6,692.96 cut may seem a pittance, but unlike New York City–now flush with a $3 billion budget surplus–things aren’t so rosy in Michigan.
Link: http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0714,gardiner,76250,15.html