Posted May 12, 2011 at 10:16 a.m., updated May 12, 2011 at 4:06 p.m.

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/may/12/big-spring-residents-held-on-money-laundering/

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Two Big Spring residents were being held Thursday in the Tom Green County Jail on charges of money laundering after they were arrested by a Department of Public Safety official.

Both were booked about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday and are being held in lieu of $20,000 bonds.

About 9 p.m. Tuesday, Cpl. Scott Frasier pulled over a 2003 Silver Ford F-150 for speeding on U.S. 87 about eight miles north of San Angelo, according to a DPS news release.

Frasier "observed several indicators of possible illegal activity" and asked to search the pickup, according to the release. The driver, Donald Gene Koerber III, consented to the search, which yielded $8,770 in cash.

DPS Spokesman Shawn Baxter said the two were headed from Big Spring to an unknown location in San Angelo.

Koerber told Frasier the money wasn't his — that he had been given the cash to bring to San Angelo, Baxter said.

"(Troopers) suspected it was proceeds from an illegal activity," Baxter said.

The DPS declined to release any more information Thursday, saying the case was under investigation by the criminal investigations division.

Koerber, 24, and his passenger, Juana Silva, 53, were each charged with money laundering between $1,500 and $20,000.

Tom Green County Sheriff deputies and the San Angelo Police Department's K-9 Unit assisted in the arrest.

The offense is a state jail felony punishable by 180 days to two years in state jail and a fine up to $10,000. Under the Texas Penal Code, a person commits the crime if he or she "acquires or maintains an interest in, conceals, possesses, transfers, or transports the proceeds of criminal activity," facilitates a transaction involving the proceeds of criminal activity or "invests funds that the person believes are intended to further the commission of criminal activity."

Most money laundering charges are found on interstates in larger sums of money than this instance, Baxter said.

According to state records, Koerber pleaded guilty July 2008 to a charge of manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance between one and four grams. He received 10 years probation through the Howard County 118th District Court.

Silva pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana between four ounces and five pounds in 1997 and was sentenced to four years probation in the Mitchell County District Court. In February 2002 she pleaded guilty to manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance between one and four grams. She received 10 years probation for the charge, which was filed in Howard County.

Baxter said money seized during arrests is placed in an account established through a district attorney's office until a district judge holds a seizure hearing to determine who claims the money. If it goes to DPS or other law enforcement agencies, the district attorney's office receives a share.