By Sharon Turco
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A windfall of $816,000 came to Hamilton County Thursday when a convicted drug dealer signed over to law enforcement a pile of cash seized in a bust of a Price Hill home.

"This is the largest seizure in a drug case I can remember, at least on my watch," Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said.

Large cash seizures sometimes come in gambling cases, but drug busts tend to yield lesser amounts of money, he said.

The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and the Cincinnati Police Department will split 80 percent of the money - $326,400 each - seized by the Regional Enforcement Narcotics Unit (RENU) in the July 11 bust, with the remaining $163,200 going to the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office.

The law allows for the money to be expended at the discretion of the law enforcement agency, however the whole point of drug seizure and forfeiture laws is to reinvest proceeds in drug-fighting equipment and programs, Mr. Allen said.

In the July bust, RENU officers also confiscated 435 pounds of marijuana. They charged four people, including Paul Anderson, 42, of Roselawn, who was convicted in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Thursday on two charges of drug trafficking, possession of marijuana and conspiracy.

Judge Thomas C. Nurre sentenced Mr. Anderson to four years in prison. During sentencing, Mr. Anderson agreed to give the money to law enforcement. Had he refused, a hearing would have been held to determine if Mr. Anderson legitimately earned the money, according to prosecutors.

In other cases from the bust:

Judge Nurre sentenced Kimberly Johnson, 25, of Bond Hill, Jan. 16 to three years of community control on charges of trafficking in marijuana and possession of marijuana.

Lenworth Minto, 49, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was sentenced in November to spend three years in prison on a charge of possession of marijuana.

Robert Johnston, 37, of Westwood, was also charged in the bust. The status of his case was unknown late Thursday.

Investigators think the ring may have been responsible for distributing more than five tons of marijuana since 1999.

E-mail sturco@enquirer.com