Prosecutors believe the more than $100,000 seized from former Bermuda resident Dennis Pamplin and two other men is drug money and have applied to a judge to confiscate it, a New Jersey paper reports today.

The Morris County Prosecutor's Office has filed a lawsuit which says the $110,745 should be forfeited because it was intended to be used or was the proceeds of drug sales or other illegal activity.

Pamplin is the husband of United Bermuda Party deputy leader and candidate for election on December 18th, Pat Gordon-Pamplin.

Pamplin's lawyer, Paul Bergrin, has said the $47,000 specifically seized from his client was legitimate cash intended for the purchase of music recording equipment.

Today's Morristown Daily Record reports the lawsuit was made public yesterday in state Superior Court, Morristown.

Pamplin, an American who has been living in New Rochelle, New York, Mark E. Small, 40, of Elmont, N.Y., and Ronald Cyril Ellis, a 38 year-old Bermudian of Deltona, Florida, were arrested in Chatham, New Jersey on August 28. The men deny conspiracy and money laundering charges.

Chatham, New Jersey police received a report of a "aggressive-driving auto accident" in which one man was seen running into the woods.

An officer approached, spotted Small and Ellis, stopped them and saw cash falling from Ellis' pockets. The men accused each other of robbery.

Pamplin was found later a short distance away near a SUV which he claimed was his. The lawsuit claims Pamplin at first said he was driving his SUV but then said Ellis was driving his car and that a second Tahoe SUV almost ran them off the road.

Pamplin claimed he did not know the other SUV driver — Small — but in a search of Pamplin's vehicle, $47,000 was found packaged in white envelopes that had the same kind of markings on them as were found on Ellis and inside Small's Tahoe SUV.

Police concluded that all three men knew each other despite their stories, the lawsuit said.

The county sheriff's canine unit was called, and a dog reacted positively to the odour of drugs on the back seat of the Tahoe, the lawsuit said.

No drugs however, were found in the Tahoe nor in a search of Pamplin's SUV, the lawsuit said.