POOH HAD BELLY FULL OF CASH

Somewhere between Chicago and Albuquerque, Winnie the Pooh put on 5 pounds
- - and it wasn't from honey.

Anti-drug agents acting on suspicions seized the stuffed animal and a
gift-wrapped box from two women on an Amtrak train in October.

Documents filed last month in federal court in Albuquerque said the box and
stuffed animal were searched and found to contain $68,000 in cash, wrapped
in bundles and held by rubber bands.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration alleges the money was for drugs,
and the federal government is trying to keep the cash.

Besides that case, agents have seized nearly $175,000 in cash in two other
stops aboard Amtrak, according to civil forfeiture complaints filed in
federal court in Albuquerque.

That will add to $266,191 that was forfeited between Oct. 1, 1999 and July
21, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kotz.

Not all of the money came from seizures on Amtrak, but Kotz said that all
money goes into a special federal fund.

"In essence, what we do with that is use the proceeds to fight drug
trafficking," he said.

In the case involving the stuffed animal, DEA agent Kevin Small and State
Police agent Jonathan Salazar - a drug task force officer - found the doll
and the box after getting permission from Rafaela Sena and Esperanza
Flores-Delgado to search two paper bags.

Bill Hansen, head of the DEA in New Mexico, declined to say Tuesday how the
women were singled out for questioning. But he said his agents conduct
their drug-interception operations twice a day aboard eastbound and
westbound Amtrak trains that stop in Albuquerque. In many cases, agents are
tipped off by anonymous callers.

The affidavit said the agents targeted the women after checking Amtrak's
reservations and noting that a Carla and Esperanza Flores were traveling on
one-way tickets, purchased with cash, from Cleveland to Los Angeles. The
train stopped in Albuquerque.

The affidavit said the last-minute reservation and payment in cash is
consistent with methods used by drug money couriers. The women also showed
the agents California driver's licenses with names that differed from the
names on the tickets.

Small's affidavit said the stuffed doll and the box were unusually heavy,
and that when the women were questioned, they trembled from nervousness and
gave inconsistent answers.

The affidavit said Small noticed there were hard square objects in the
stomach and the head of the bear, and it had some stitching that was
different from the factory stitching.

Under questioning, the women said they bought the Winnie the Pooh doll at a
Target store in Chicago, the affidavit said.

The agents kept the items until they could get a search warrant, gave the
women a receipt and let them continue on their trip.

The affidavit said agents later obtained the search warrant and weighed the
doll. They found it weighed 7.4 pounds, called a local Target store and
were told that the same doll normally would weigh 2.5 pounds.

"The money was hidden in the Winnie the Pooh and another package," Hansen
said. "We alleged it was for drugs - either from a prior purchase or a
planned purchase."

A check of U.S. District Court records Tuesday showed no criminal charges
have been filed against the women in New Mexico.

However, court records say that Sena, of El Cajon, Calif., is targeted by
the DEA in San Diego as allegedly being part of a ring that smuggles
marijuana into the United States, and that she routinely travels to eastern
cities where the drug is distributed.