Police find between $500,000 and $1 million in I-91 stop

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - Acting on a tip, state police stopped a pickup truck on Interstate 91 Wednesday morning and seized between $500,000 and $1 million dollars packed in hidden compartments.

Michael Masse, 22, of Fairfield, Vt., was arrested Thursday on a federal warrant by Drug Enforcement Agency agents after being picked up by a state police officer Wednesday. State police acted on a DEA task force tip that Masse was driving a vehicle containing what the report called "hydro-weed."

Investigators later said Masse was believed to be involved in a large-scale, international marijuana-trafficking organization that operates between Canada and the United States.

According to the application for a criminal complaint in Masse's court file, Trooper Matthew Donah was working a paid traffic detail on I-91 northbound in Holyoke Wednesday morning when he received a notice from the DEA task force to be on the look out for a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck with Vermont plates. The tip stated that the task force believed the vehicle had a hidden compartment containing a large amount of marijuana.

Several minutes later, the vehicle passed Donah and he reportedly pulled it over several miles down the highway in Northampton. Masse, who was driving the vehicle, reportedly told Donah that he had a license out of Quebec, but did not have it on him. Masse also reportedly told police that he was coming from a vacation in New York and was returning to Montreal.

After a police K-9 unit trained to identify drugs indicated that there might be drugs in the vehicle, both Masse and a passenger, Mathieu Nantais, 22, of Quebec, Canada, were arrested on charges of conspiracy to violate a drug law.

After being read his Miranda rights, Nantais reportedly put his head in his hands and told arresting officers, "We are so stupid," and "I should have just stayed at home."

The vehicle was taken back to the barracks to be searched, where Lt. John Murphy directed a state police mechanic to search the area behind the rear passenger seat because the insulation appeared to be facing in the wrong direction.

The mechanic reportedly found a large stack of money behind the seat, and then discovered a large amount of money in a backpack on the rear floor of the vehicle, as well as four stacks of cash hidden in the passenger side air bag of the truck, estimated to be about $40,000.

More searching, Donah reported, revealed two loose wires that led from the front of the truck and ran into the back seat. Suspecting that the wires might release another hiding place, police exposed the wires to a 12-volt power source, which caused two hidden electric pistons to push the rear seat open and exposed a "large cache of money in various denominations," according to Donah's report.

All the money, police reported, was either wrapped in rubber bands or shrink-wrapped and was estimated to be between $500,000 and $1 million, though police were still counting Thursday afternoon.

There was no marijuana in the vehicle, reports stated, just the money.

Meanwhile, Northampton District Court officials Thursday dropped a charge of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle against Masse, and he was taken away by federal agents on a warrant out of New Hampshire. It was not clear Thursday where Nantais was.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.