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SALT LAKE CITY — Criminal charges were filed Monday against an Illinois woman who police say was delivering more than $180,000 to a man in Reno simply known as “Dude.”
Lacey D. Brown, 35, of Springfield, Ill., is charged in 3rd District Court with money laundering, a second-degree felony, and following a vehicle too closely, an infraction.
On March 10, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper pulled Brown over on I-80 for following a semitrailer too closely. During a search of her car, troopers found four vacuum-sealed bags under the liner of her suitcase that smelled of marijuana, according to charging documents.
“Brown said the money was used to buy marijuana. She said she was being paid $5,000 a trip” and she was taking the cash to a man at a casino in Reno she only knows as “Dude,” according to the charges.
A total of $181,020 was found in the bags, police say.
“The cash was packaged and bundled consistent with drug money proceeds. Lacey has a history of smuggling money,” a police affidavit states.
