El Paso trucker gets money back from DEA

[douglas9]

Source: El Paso Times/Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said Wednesday the Drug Enforcement Administration has returned to a truck driver nearly $23,000 seized in August at a weigh station in southern New Mexico.

The ACLU had sued the agency on behalf of Anastasio Prieto of El Paso after the DEA told him he would receive a notice of federal proceedings to permanently forfeit the money and that to get it back, he'd have to prove it was his and did not come from illegal drug sales.

The ALCU has said Prieto, who doesn't like banks and customarily carries his savings as cash, needed the money to pay his bills and maintain his truck.

"Carrying around large amounts of cash is not a crime in America," said Peter Simonson, ACLU New Mexico's executive director. "But our federal laws have so empowered law enforcement to investigate drug activity that some officers assume they can simply cut corners and dispense with the need for actual evidence."

Read more: http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_7081506?source=email

[DRoseDARs]

1. 'Bout damn time. n/t

[Th1onein]

2. They have a license to steal.

It's about time somebody challenged their thieving asses!

[John1956PA]

3. In a PA case, $257,400 seized from a truck may wind up forfeited.

"Wednesday, October 03, 2007, The Associated Press'

"JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- A Canadian trucker concealed more than $250,000 in cash when his rig was stopped on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last fall.'

"Ebrahim Mansouri, 53, of Toronto, was pulled over Sept. 26, 2006, because a state trooper said he did not have a U.S. Department of Transportation sticker on his truck.'

"Police said they found $257,400 in heat-shrunk plastic packaging that had been hidden in the truck's cab. The money later tested positive for heroin and cocaine residue. Police searched the truck after they said the trucker gave vague answers about where he had been that didn't match up with his log books."

<snip>

More at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07276/822499-100.stm

[DRoseDARs]

4. That article doesn't strike me as comparable to this case...

The Canadian's money had drug residue on it, more than the regular background amount you can find on ANY bill that's been in circulation for a number of years, else I don't think it would have been mentioned. He gave statements on his whereabouts that conflicted with his own logbook. He lacked a proper sticker on his truck certifying him for US trucking. And he owes a couple grand on a Canadian student loan and credit card debts.

Our Hispanic fellow doesn't seem to be guilty of anything more than being brown-skinned. Both are guilty of not declaring their money beforehand, but the gentleman in New Mexico seems to be the one that is on the level. The Canadian looks more like he has some explaining to do...

[notadmblnd]

6. I imagine that there are a lot of bills in this country that have drug residue on them

I'd hate to think that I would be arrested or my cash confiscated because a previous holder of the cash I now have in my pocket used it to snort drugs. The only way you can make sure your money is clean is to launder it before putting it in your wallet.

[Javaman]

7. Exactly. I read something a few years back that just about every single

bill of any denomination currently in circulation can be tested positive for drug residue.

[sofa king]

5. Here's one from the memory hole.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06110/683609-57.stm

When security guards at the Beaver Valley Power Station discovered a bag containing thousands of dollars in a tractor-trailer cab, one of the vehicle's occupants told them his boss planned to use the cash to buy a truck.

It must have been some truck.

State police said the bag, which guards spotted on Tuesday while conducting a routine search of the tractor-trailer at the entrance to the nuclear power plant, contained 10 plastic-wrapped bundles of cash totaling $504,230.

Police later seized the money and bag after a dog trained to detect drugs sniffed and reacted to the bag, indicating contact with controlled substances.

Boy, oh, boy, that story dropped like a rock. Wonder why?

As I've said before and will say again, all large sums of cash money smell like drugs. That's because if a single $20 bill passes through the hands of a crack dealer, dogs can smell it in the wad.

The DEA has a standing offer to split the spoils between themselves and the arresting--correction, waylaying--police departments, so it's in their best interests to pretend like a dog with the IQ of our President knows which money is in the possession of actual drug dealers and which money fell into the hands of innocents due to a failing of our federal drug policies.