I-85 traffic stop reveals 18-wheeler is hauling stacks of cash, NC cops say

A routine traffic stop involving an 18-wheeler revealed the payload included a suspiciously large stockpile of cash, according to investigators in North Carolina.

The discovery was made Tuesday when Gaston County Police pulled over a tractor-trailer on Interstate 85, the department said in a Feb. 4 news release.

Photos show the stacks of cash were well disguised among other boxes in the trailer, but a drug-sniffing K-9 was not fooled, police said.

The money added up to ”more than $500,000,” officials said.

“County police K-9 officers initiated a traffic stop on a tractor-trailer after observing it commit a traffic violation,” the police department said.

“The K-9 alerted to the presence of the odor of narcotics in the vehicle. ... During the course of an extensive search, detectives located a large amount of U.S. currency carefully concealed within the trailer. The cash was packaged in numerous individual bundles, consistent with methods commonly used to conceal large sums of currency associated with drug trafficking and money laundering.”

Investigators did not release the identity of the driver, and did not report if the driver was aware of the contents of the load.

The investigation is ongoing, officials said.

Gaston County is just west of Charlotte.