Robert Eugene Huff, Interstate Transportation in Aid of Racketeering, Nebraska 2023

A 69-year-old Indiana man has been sent to prison for his role in a racketeering scheme. Robert Eugene Huff was sentenced to 1 year in prison by Chief United States District Judge John M. Gerrard in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 25, 2024. In addition to his prison sentence, Huff will be required to serve 2 years on supervised release.

Huff forfeited $149,746.00 in cash and a 2016 Ford F-350 truck as part of the sentence. The money and vehicle were seized by law enforcement during a traffic stop on Interstate 80 in Lancaster County on December 25, 2017. At the time of the stop, Huff was driving a pickup truck and claimed he was traveling from Brown County, Indiana, to his home in Chico, California.

During the stop, a K9 officer indicated the presence of a controlled substance in the vehicle, and a search was conducted. Deputies found a large tote locked and cable-tied to the bed of the pickup, which contained vacuum-sealed packages of money. A tool chest in the truck held several bundles of money with sticky notes on them that listed people's names and amounts.

A backpack in the truck contained a $10,000.00 bundle of one hundred dollar bills, a $3,000.00 bundle of ten-dollar bills, and several hundreds of dollars in one-dollar bills. When questioned about the lock on the tote, Huff said it belonged to his son and that he didn't have a key. However, deputies later found the key among Huff's belongings. The currency in the bags was later tested and found to contain cannabis.

The deputies also discovered notes and paperwork that detailed Huff's interstate travel across the country, including mileage consistent with a trip from Chico, California, to an area south of Indianapolis, then back home to California. These notes provided information indicative of drug distribution activity. Based on an estimated $2,000 per pound value for the purchase of marijuana in California, the money seized would convert to approximately 74.8 pounds of marijuana.

Huff's case was investigated by the Lancaster County Sheriff's Department. The forfeiture of $149,746.00 in cash and a 2016 Ford F-350 truck is part of his sentence, in addition to the 1 year in prison and 2 years of supervised release.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ne/pr/i-80-bust-sends-indiana-man-prison