Guys in truck disown huge cash stash

SOCORRO, N.M. (KRQE) - New Mexico State Police pulled over a truck for tailgating, but it's what they found inside that really fired their curiosity. Money, lots of it.

Police believe that cash is tied to a Mexican drug cartel.

Police say the two guys who were in that truck said they had no idea where that more than $600,000 came from or how it got there.

Early Tuesday an officer spotted the white pick-up truck with Chihuahua, Mexico, license plates. Police say it was tailgating another car on Interstate 25 near Socorro.

When the officer talked to the driver and passenger, they both gave different stories.

Police asked if they could search the truck. That’s when a K-9 cop went to work.

The dog alerted to a spot behind the seat. When police took the seat out, they found a hidden compartment with more than $600,000.

Police say the guys in the truck claimed they had no idea where the money came from. Officers believe that cash is tied to a drug cartel.

“Any time you get a seizure this large, probably headed to Mexico, there’s got to be some kind of tie to some kind of cartel,” said State Police Lt. Robert McDonald.

The cash and the truck are now in the hands of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

For now the two men haven’t been arrested or charged, but agents are investigating where that cash came from. So these guys are by no means out of the woods.

The DEA says those men can take legal action to try and get the money back, but they told police it wasn’t theirs.