Fishy money
A legislative aide to an Essex County assemblywoman, Yankey, was arrested last week after police found $700,000 in cash and filed-down handguns in a storage unit in North Bergen, NY. A storage locker’s contract had expired, and after numerous written requests for the individual to vacate the storage unit or pay the bill, management cut the lock, said Capt. Robert Dowd.
Normally, the items within the storage unit would have been auctioned off. However, the management found a gym bag, a fish tank, and a wooden fish tank stand containing some curious items. Inside the gym bag were two handguns that had their serial numbers defaced with what police believed to be a drill. In the fish tank was $100,000, and police found a hidden compartment in the wooden stand carrying an additional $600,000.
“We determined together that something was a little fishy about the fish tank,” said Dowd. “It was very heavy. It was bulky.” When they brought it outside they noticed that it had an electrical receptacle, which didn’t make sense because there was no plug for it to be powered with. Dowd said they dissembled the stand by force and found a hidden compartment inside that contained the additional $600,000. The money in both the tank and stand had been professionally shrink-wrapped in plastic. Dowd said that they way the money was wrapped, as well as the way it was hidden, led them to believe the money had been laundered from an illegal operation, although police are not yet certain whether drugs or gambling was the source of the cash. They are now investigating to see if the cash in the fishtank is also related to a narcotic or gambling operation.
Police were able to lift fingerprints from the fish tank. Dowd said that while Yankey allegedly rented the unit in a false name, the storage facility had fingerprinted him. Both fingerprints matched Yankey’s, along with his 1998 drug distribution conviction.
