Hopkins County authorities nab Missouri man, say $66K found in sack

HOPKINS COUNTY, Texas (KLTV) - A Poplar Bluff, Missouri man was arrested in Hopkins County and is facing charges of money laundering and theft of a firearm.

According to an arrest report, a deputy with the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office made a traffic stop on a vehicle Sunday for expired registration as well as an equipment violation.

The report said upon making contact with the driver, the deputy smelled the odor of marijuana emitting from the vehicle. During the course of the stop, the report said the driver admitted to having marijuana as well as a handgun inside the vehicle.

The report said upon conducting a probable cause search of the vehicle, the deputy located the two items the driver admitted to having.

The report said the deputy also found a backpack in the vehicle with a black trash bag inside. The report said inside the trash bag was a sack which contained several bundles of rubber banded U.S. currency. The report said the deputy noticed the bundles contained several different denomination of currency, which the deputy knew through his law enforcement experience is commonly indicative to the sales of narcotics or other criminal activity. The deputy said the driver was not able to tell the deputy about how he obtained the money or tell the deputy how much money was in the sack. Money was also found in the driver’s shorts according to the report.

The report said the driver, Devontae Jaleel Gipson, was taken into custody and taken to the Hopkins County Jail. The report said the money was rough counted and determined to be a total of $66,012. The report said the deputy also ran the handgun and found it to be stolen out of Campbell, MO.

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