News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 01, 2011
Contact: Chuvalo J. Truesdell
404-893-7124

State/Local Law Enforcement Agencies Get More Than $3 Million in Asset Forfeiture

MAR 01 -- (COLUMBIA, South Carolina) – United States Attorney Bill Nettles announced today, at a press conference held at 2:00 pm in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Greenville, that $3,085,386 dollars in seized assets stemming from an upstate drug prosecution from 2004 through 2006 has been dispersed among several state and local law enforcement agencies that partnered in the investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service/Criminal Investigation. Those agencies include the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, the Greenville Police Department, the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office.

The seized property and funds were included in a written plea agreement during the March 2006 guilty plea proceedings in federal court in Spartanburg of Charles W. Penland, Sr., (Penland), 71, a Spartanburg County businessman who operated Highway 101 Auto Sales and at one point attempted to open “Thee Bunny Ranchâ€