Madison County Sheriff Ben Stewart reports that on Monday, Jan. 4, at approximately 2:38 p.m., Deputy Goldman, with the Madison County Sheriff’s Office Interstate Criminal Enforcement Unit conducted a traffic stop on a white BMW for multiple traffic violations while traveling east on I-10.
Deputy Goldman approached the driver and immediately detected the odor of marijuana coming from within the BMW. Deputy Goldman requested assistance from Deputy Haskell. The driver, Fatai Balogun, 33, of Hollywood, Fl., and the passenger, Adedayo Fateru, 32, of Miami, Fl., were eventually positively identified.
A probable cause search of the BMW discovered two medium size bags of marijuana (36 grams), a large heat sealed brick of U.S. currency, a Bersa Thunder 40 caliber hand gun, 20 stolen credit cards, six prepaid debit cards falsely embossed with other persons stolen credit card information, three fake social security cards to match three fake Florida drivers licenses, hundreds of ledgers with personal information of other persons and 23 individual file folders containing photo copies of drivers licenses, social security numbers, W-2’s, 10-40’s, credit card applications, with voided checks and bank account numbers all in the names of multiple victims.
Sheriff Stewart expresses concerns with recent legislation that opposes the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act regarding these types of cases and their desire to change the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act. Since 2009, when Sheriff Stewart took office, the Sheriff’s Office Interstate Criminal Enforcement Unit has arrested over 185 defendants, conducted over 100 identity/fraud cases, apprehended over 35 fugitives, seized over 400 pounds of illegal drugs, over 35 weapons, over 18 vehicles and over 1.7 million of US currency all in accordance with the Florida Forfeiture Contraband Act and Federal guidelines. It is important to note that in the past year alone the Sheriff’s Office Interstate Criminal Enforcement Unit investigated numerous cases involving $200,000.00 of property and/or US currency that was not seized.
It is important for the public to be aware that the current Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act strictly and sufficiently governs a seizure and forfeiture of contraband and further specifies the purpose of use of seized/forfeited property and or currency. The upcoming legislation is expected to again propose changes to the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act to stop Law Enforcement from having the ability to take lawful action against defendants, as in this case, and preventing hundreds of victims from continuing to be victimized.
Balogun and Fateru were successfully arrested and charged with possession and intent to sell marijuana, possession of a firearm during commission of a felony, one count of possession of personal identification information (stolen driver’s license), six counts of possession of counterfeit credit cards, three counts of possession of fictitious identification cards, 55 counts of possession of stolen credit/debit cards and 55 counts of possession of identification information of other persons.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office confiscated multiple stolen IDs, currency and 36 grams of marijuana