African immigrant Sidialy Diaafar did not commit a crime on May 2, 2019. But he did drive southbound on Interstate 95 in a rental vehicle with out-of-state plates.

That was enough to catch the interest of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina. Deputies knew that cigarette smugglers typically carry their contraband north from the tobacco belt to New York, so members of a special task force waited on the opposite side of the road near Fayetteville to intercept the cash coming back.