A lucrative battle against Mexican drug cartels is being fought on the sides of an interstate in three of Alabama's more rural counties.

Civil asset forfeiture has come under fire in recent years, as some law enforcement agencies across the country have deployed the tactic in ways that have been widely criticized as abusive.

But a small drug task force operating in Greene, Marengo and Sumter counties - collectively, Alabama's 17th Judicial Circuit - has leveraged the practice to take millions of dollars worth of cash, drugs and other property off the street in recent years, much of which they say they have seized from Mexican cartels like the Sinaloa and Los Zetas.

In the process, the unit has become one of the most productive law enforcement agencies in the state when it comes to asset forfeiture, according to federal data. That's despite the fact that the total estimated population of the three counties it polices is just 41,135 people - or less than 0.85 percent of the overall state population.

'Major drug-smuggling route'

Three days before last Christmas, an officer with the 17th Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force stopped a tractor-trailer for a traffic violation on Interstate 20/59 in Greene County - Alabama's least populous county, with fewer than 8,500 residents.

After noticing inconsistencies in the truck's paperwork, the task force says an officer performed a search and found 167 pounds of cocaine packaged in bricks and hidden in a secret compartment.

Last year, the drug task force for Alabama's 17th Judicial Circuit released this photograph of the 167 pounds of cocaine it seized in Greene County.

The unit estimated at the time that the value of the cocaine was about $2.2 million, and ultimately turned the case over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after determining it was most likely "tied directly to a cartel," according to Clint Sumlin, the task force's commander. The driver of the truck, Silverio Canales-Licona, was ultimately convicted in June of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, according to court records.

Though luck plays a part in these busts, Sumlin says the fact that I-20 and I-59 combine as they pass through the area under the 17th Judicial Circuit's jurisdiction makes it an opportune place to sometimes make big-dollar seizures from cartels.

"What happens is most of the drugs are coming across the Mexico border and they have to get north," Sumlin explained as he steered his black SUV along a Marengo County back road in September.

"We have a major drug-smuggling route - 20/59 - that runs right through our rural community ... Your big-time drug smugglers are trying to just get through here to get to Atlanta or Charlotte or New York or Any City, USA, or they're trying to get their proceeds back south."

'A nasty bunch'

The 17th Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force, which also runs local undercover investigations and other more typical drug enforcement activities, has made it a priority to make as big a dent in that drug-running game as possible. And the numbers show that it is far outpunching its weight.

In fiscal year 2014, the most recent year for which federal data is available, the task force seized more than $427,000 in cash and property that was either used to facilitate a federal crime or that represented the proceeds of a federal crime. That number, which is higher than that of any other local law enforcement agency in Alabama, amounts to more than 9.5 percent of the $4.9 million in such assets seized in fiscal 2014 in the state, including the nearly $1.75 million seized by the statewide Alabama Department Of Public Safety.

The next-highest haul was about $376,000 seized by the Montgomery Police Department, according to U.S. Justice Department data. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office came in third among local agencies, but brought in only $343,000 in such assets, despite the fact that its jurisdiction is home to more than 16 times as many people as that of the 17th Circuit task force.

These tallies do not represent all assets seized in these jurisdictions, as only those that are seized in connection with a federal criminal investigation are reported to - and shared with - the federal government. Under Alabama law, assets seized during investigations and busts carried out by state and local law enforcement agencies do not have to be reported to the public.

In December 2013, the 17th Circuit task force - which consists of only a handful of officers - seized $386,900 from a passenger bus traveling along a stretch of the same highway in Sumter County, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said at the time.

The cash had been rolled up into bundles and hidden in hollowed-out heels of women's wedge shoes and between packaged bed sheets, but K-9 dogs foiled the ploy. ICE got involved once task force officers determined that the money belonged to three Mexican nationals.

In 2013, Alabama's 17th Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force seized $386,900 in cash, much of which was hidden inside women's shoes. (Courtesy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., the Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge for the agency's New Orleans region, said after the bust that the cash - which he described as "the ill-gotten proceeds of [a] criminal organization" - was headed to Mexico, meaning its transport was a potential violation of currency smuggling laws.

Greg Griggers, district attorney for the 17th Judicial Circuit, said it is important to not only seize cartels' drugs, but to also go after their cash in order to do further damage to the criminal organizations.

"I guarantee those people down in Mexico don't appreciate the work my guys do. We go through down spells because of that. They send it through [Interstate] 40 until they beat them on 40 bad enough, then they start coming back through and we catch them again," Griggers, who oversees the task force, explained.

"It's all about money. That's all the cartels are about. If you can either intercept their product or intercept their profit, then you're making it more difficult for them to operate. Now that's one good thing about cartels: you know they are a nasty bunch, so if we intercept cartel dope and it doesn't make it to where its supposed to go, somebody's head is going to roll. Literally."

A targeted approach

Massive headline-grabbing busts represent just a fraction of the work the task force, according to Griggers.

"It's just as simple as we are acknowledging that in our circuit we've got a corridor that the cartel uses. So then it becomes a decision: do you do something to try to police that corridor or not? We've chosen to police it," Griggers said during a September interview in Demopolis.

"Not only are we trying to help our community, but we're trying to address the real problem here, and that is [the cartels] shipping drugs into our country and making all of our people addicts."

Most of the cartel drugs and money seized by the task force are found during traffic stops for relatively minor violations, like broken taillights or speeding.

While the tactics used to eventually uncover the drugs may seem rudimentary, they are effective. And they represent an alternative approach to asset forfeiture than using it against accused low-level offenders whether or not they are ever convicted of a crime, a practice that has given the tactic a bad reputation nationally in recent years.

Griggers says that rather than spending all of their time seizing $500 from a junkie here and an aging sedan from a small-time dealer there - which the task force does sometimes do - his unit focuses much of its energy on targeting major local suppliers and the interstate traffickers that commonly pass through the counties under his jurisdiction.

"The community sees some of what you do, but they don't really understand how big of an effect it has day in and day out, because drugs unfortunately affect so many things on so many levels," he said.

It's an approach that Griggers believes results in better outcomes both for the members of the local community and the nation. But he is also proud that it is a boon for the task force's bottom line, as the task force gets to keep a percentage of the proceeds from all asset forfeitures it performs that result in condemnation of property.

"I don't understand why people ... are so bashful about saying that the end result of me catching John Doe on the interstate with $320,000 is that it helps my office financially," he said.

"When 40-something percent of my budget [is cut] and I can't afford to employ enough people to do what I took an oath to do in my circuit, if I can do something the right way and be able to supplement my money by something that is done the right way, I'm not the least bit bashful about that."