SOUTH PORTLAND–The South Portland Police Department is $48,650 richer after City Council members accepted a pool of money from the state asset forfeiture program.

The money, said police Chief Edward Googins, comes from a motor vehicle stop of Eric Castrucci at Cash Corner by Officer John Bostwick where a significant amount of marijuana and cash were seized.

Through the program, any property or cash seized as a result of a law enforcement action may be transferred back to the participating department or departments.

Googins said 20 percent of that total might have to be shared with other departments that helped with the incident. That figure, he said, may already have the 20 percent taken out.

“The whole premise of both the federal forfeiture program and state forfeiture program is not to allow those who participate in illegal activities to further benefit from their proceeds,” Googins told the City Council at its July 7 meeting.

While she said it is nice to get the money, Councilor Linda Boudreau reminded her fellow council members that the city was only getting the money because a crime had occurred in its environs.

The money can be used by the South Portland Police Department for law enforcement activities only if it supplements, not supplants, existing funding.

The irony of the forfeiture program, Boudreau said, is that in a way criminals are funding programs to enhance law enforcement in the community in which they committed their crime. The enhancements might not be feasible without the forfeiture funding.