[lanius]

>Driving back with $85,000 cash in the boot of the car, they were stopped by the police... When they were released, the cash was gone.

Civil forfeiture strikes again!

[goldenkey]

They are alluding to the money being pilfered by unprincipled cops.

[crooked-v]

The point you're missing is that unprincipled cops regularly pilfer cash under the fig leaf of civil forfeiture laws in the US, with the end result only being different for most victims of the practice in that it's recorded somewhere that money was taken from them.