Last modified: Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:57 AM EDT Detective Alex Aponte and DARE Officer Tom Wellman with new DARE car. The 1996 Land Rover was seized from a drug dealer. (Staff photo by Tom Maguire) A sweet ride for DARE BY DAVID LINTON / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO - DARE Officer Tom Wellman has a new ride to drive to city schools in the War on Drugs, thanks to a cocaine dealer and the city detectives who busted him. Wellman, the city's Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer, is driving around in a newly acquired and reconditioned 1996 Land Rover that a drug dealer forfeited to the police department. The sport utility vehicle has 100,000 miles on it, "but you wouldn't know it. It rides real nice," Wellman said. The interior of the vehicle had been torn apart by detectives in their search for drugs, but it was repainted and reconditioned by Chaz's Auto Body on County Street and Roberts Automotive on Pine Street, who donated their services. Pinstriping and decal work was done by Municipal Graphics and by Wellman and David Viera of the police department. The vehicle was forfeited by Antonio Tavares, 27, of Pawtucket, after he was busted in March 2006 in an undercover drug investigation led by city detectives Timothy Cook and James Cote. Also participating were detectives Russell Castro, Jeffrey Peavey, Alex Aponte, Lt. John Otrando and Sgt. Arthur Brillon. "I want to share their hard work by showing it off on the street every day," Wellman said. Wellman said he gets a lot of compliments from students, teachers and school administrators, and he tells them how the city got the vehicle. "It's poetic justice. Instead of the drugs going to the kids, it's the car going to the kids," said Detective Alex Aponte, who added that taking vehicles from drug dealers hurts their business. "It hits them where it hurts. They can lose the drugs. They can make up for the lost money," Aponte said. Drug dealers, Wellman said, "take a lot of pride in their vehicles." "They don't like to see cops driving their vehicles," Aponte added. The Land Rover is one of four cars the Attleboro police department has acquired through drug forfeitures. Other vehicles are being used in undercover investigations to bust more dealers. "I find it refreshingly ironic that a vehicle used by a drug dealer is now being used on the war against drugs," Brillon said.