“It’s like Jesse James or Black Bart,” John Ohlson, a Reno lawyer representing one of the men, told The Associated Press last week.

Bob Pace was among the locals who raised concerns that regardless of whether the claims are true, they may be giving the town a black eye.

“The majority of the community is extra concerned,” said Pace, who taught school for 30 years and now works in the mining industry.

“ You have a huge job and do it well,” he told Kilgore, “but the perception is an individual on the road is stopped, and they are not cited. They are not arrested, but their cash or their weapons are confiscated.”

Humboldt County District Attorney Michael Macdonald said that in cases of civil forfeitures, individuals have the right to go to court to try to prove they obtained the money is legally, rightfully theirs.

But Dan Deveny said that turns the justice system “upside down.’

“There’s no citation,” he said. “But now you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent.”

Kilgore acknowledged drug-interdiction tactics are a “hot topic,” but he said they follow the same guidelines used along major interstate corridors throughout the West, as well as on the East Coast.