Money taken away from a major Mexican methamphetamine ring (Illinois)

Pontoon Beach's windfall bust

Pontoon Beach Police owe a big debt to rookie patrolman John Simmons, whose alertness and suspicions of a truck driver led to a $3.3 million drug money seizure.
Congratulations. That's money taken away from a major Mexican methamphetamine ring. It's money pumped into the drug fight.

Pontoon Beach's share is $2.37 million, which is a heck of a windfall for a community of about 6,000 where the year's police budget is $1 million.
Federal law directs that the money be used for law enforcement and fighting drugs. Pontoon Beach Police Chief Charles Luehmann said he has an equipment and training wish list.

But can the small department effectively spend $2.37 million?
It would be nice if the money could "fight drugs" through something permanent, such as a community center or scholarship. But it can't under federal law.
States have tried to divert the drug dollars. Missouri law directs the bulk to education, but local police subvert that by handing the bust over to the feds whose rules return most of the bucks to the locals.

We don't like begrudging the Pontoon Beach department because this money would not exist without them. But it seems like a poor system when so much money is concentrated in one department and the meth scourge is so widespread.

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/editorial/14129772.htm