LOXLEY, Ala. — Last may, Loxley police stopped two men in a Chevrolet pickup along Interstate 10. The truck was allegedly “swerving” on the road.

The officer making the stop, identified in press reports as Chris Crisler, says that his suspicions were piqued because the cab of the truck had a strong odor of air freshener, which he thought might be a “masking” odor for other substances.

The driver of the vehicle, Ambrosio Saul Ramirez-Ibarra, did not have a driver’s license, and Crisler’s police dog signaled that drugs had touched the money, about $20,000, that the passenger, Victor Marquez, had.

A search of the truck found no drugs. Both men were in this country legally.

Several hours later, the pair was released from Loxley without the money or the truck. Ramirez-Ibarra was charged with driving without a license.

Marquez is reported to have said the money was his, earmarked for a new house in Mexico. He has been fighting for its return ever since.

According to Loxley Chief of Police John M. Cason, “the District Attorney has his money. We turn that over right away.”

Loxley police pursued a drug forfeiture case, something that apparently the District Attorney’s office decided not to prosecute.

An attempt to contact someone at the District Attorney’s office has so far been unsuccessful.