Posted on 04/24/2009 12:00:26 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Border Patrol agents stationed at the Highway 70 Checkpoint seized $50,000 hidden inside a vehicle's hidden compartment, officials said.
Officials referred to the cash as "drug-contaminated currency" in a news release. The seizure was made Wednesday afternoon when the driver of a dark gray Acura was detained for a secondary inspection of his vehicle.
A drug-sniffing dog alerted agents to the hidden compartment within the vehicle. The vehicle and currency were seized and turned over to the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) in Las Cruces.
The driver was released pending further investigation and was not identified.
I read somewhere that all currency is drug-contaminated
NOT BP agents.
I sure wish I knew how to get our government to treat me like that.
Maybe if you started smuggling illegal aliens, it would be a start.
BEST used to refer to POE inspectors not Border Patrol. Of course in today’s faggot infested potlitically correct asshat DHS maybe it does refer to the Border patrol.
lol
If he only would have signed up at Bank of America, he could have wired that money out.
Does it bother anyone else that U.S. citizens can’t take cash out of the nation if they want to.
Seriously, shouldn’t you be able to take $50k out of the U.S. in your car if you want to?
I would assume that this money is drug money, but neither I or the border patrol truly knows for sure. Well they’ve got it. End of story.
Try carrying cash out of the U.S. on a flight. They agents will own it faster than you can take a leak.
Catch and release but hold their money?
Maybe if you started smuggling illegal aliens, it would be a start.
Hey! There ya go!
A hound that can smell jalapenos or bad manners.
Just what we need!
It is a way to have executive punishment outside of any judicial restraint. It should be unconstitutional.
All administrative law is aimed at collecting money, not reducing/punishing real crime.
Some years ago, back in the mid 1990's IIRC, the Treasury Department released a report that said 80% of all $20's, $50's and $100's in circulation had cocaine residue on them. There were quite a few less than honest police departments around the country that used this tactic to seize large amounts of cash in traffic stops. Two that I remember who were doing this were Volusia County in Florida and St. Martin's Parish in Louisiana. Not saying that this is the situation here, but it has been known to happen.
I sure wish I knew how to get our government to treat me like that.
But please note that he was released WITHOUT the money. That's part of the WOD/Asset Foreiture rulings by the SCOTUS. If that money was legally his, the only way to get it back is to post a cash bond (I believe 10%) and then hire a lawyer and "prove" that the money was legally earned.
The reason that the driver was released was because they simply didn't have enough evidence to arrest him, and have to let him go because of habeus corpus. But they can keep the money because they arrested it, and since money isn't a person, it doesn't have Constitutional rights. As crazy as this sounds, that's the "legal thought and ruling" behind the asset forfeiture laws.
Mark
Just a part of the War on Drugs.
Mark
See my post #15.
Mark
He should tell them it's the money he saved by switching to GEICO!
One of my friends lost a private plane that way. He was not charged. His plane was “guilty”, liberated, and sold at an auction. He was even offered the option to buy it back. Funny how that works.
Cindy, I may have noticed that, but I did address it as if it were a border crossing. I shouldn’t have.
I wonder if it dawns on these geniuses that anyone traveling with large sums of money might want to hide it away so it isn’t stolen.
Look, it may be drug money. I still don’t think you steal someone’s money unless you know what the facts are. These guys are simply taking the money without cause.
What would be the difference if they walked up to someone leaving a bank, and stuck a gun in their ribs?
I don’t like it either.
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