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After Sept. 11, 2001, federal authorities asked local and state police to serve as their eyes and ears on America's highways. The departments of Justice and Homeland Security, along with state agencies, spent millions to train them in an aggressive technique known as highway interdiction. But it soon became something else: Dragnets that swept up the criminal and innocent alike in a search for money. The Washington Post series revealed one of the great unknown consequences of 9/11. Local and state police, working through a Justice program called Equitable Sharing, have made nearly 62,000 cash seizures totally $2.5 billion since 9/11, without warrants or criminal charges.