Who knows who, what may be in next car?

It's enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck.

It's the thought that the car you've just passed, or the truck in the next lane, may be carrying thousands of dollars worth of illegal drugs.

And if the drugs are there, who knows what else might be present -- from knives and guns to the kind of person prone to use them.

Don't let a nice car fool you; we've noticed many of the cars stopped in drug reports by he Nebraska State Patrol are the latest models.

Nebraska in general and Interstate 80 in particular seem to be the main drug pipeline through the Great Plains, if a quick scan of reports by the Nebraska State Patrol can be believed.

"Nebraska Troopers help bust Illinois marijuana growing operation," reads a release dated Monday. "44 pounds of cocaine seized in I-80 traffic stop," reads another.

Counting through two Nebraska State Patrol Web pages of news releases, 15 are obvious drug stops, and many other probably involved drugs, but one couldn't tell from the subject line of the release.

A lot of them were probably like a release on three "special enforcements" last week.

The high visibility traffic enforcement efforts were conducted in three spots by the Nebraska State Patrol, Omaha Police Department and Douglas County Sheriff's Office as part of the Metro Safety Initiative.

Yes, Omaha may be home to the majority of Nebraska's population, but the numbers are still surprising for someone who doesn't think much about drugs.

Among the citations for speeding (79), driving while intoxicated (2), driving under suspension (11), child restraint warnings (4), were 11 citations for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, one for possession of cocaine, one for carrying a concealed weapon and seven contacts made with suspected gang members.

Even in the state's more populated eastern portion, most of us don't feel safer anywhere than Nebraska. But next time you pull onto the interstate headed, say, toward the state tournaments in Lincoln, keep in mind who, and what, might be in the next car.