Cash is a crime

[ciphergoth]

If the US police find lots of cash in your car, they can keep it; they don't need to prove it wasn't legitimately yours.

US Court of Appeals, Eighth CircuitA federal appeals court ruled yesterday that if a motorist is carrying large sums of money, it is automatically subject to confiscation. In the case entitled, "United States of America v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit took that amount of cash away from Emiliano Gomez Gonzolez, a man with a "lack of significant criminal history" neither accused nor convicted of any crime.

On May 28, 2003, a Nebraska state trooper signaled Gonzolez to pull over his rented Ford Taurus on Interstate 80. The trooper intended to issue a speeding ticket, but noticed the Gonzolez's name was not on the rental contract. The trooper then proceeded to question Gonzolez -- who did not speak English well -- and search the car. The trooper found a cooler containing $124,700 in cash, which he confiscated. A trained drug sniffing dog barked at the rental car and the cash. For the police, this was all the evidence needed to establish a drug crime that allows the force to keep the seized money.

Update I got an unsigned anonymous followup, which I'm leaving screened; please provide at least a nom as per my user info.

Comments

[felishumanus.livejournal.com]

i cna;t help wodnering why he didn't just purchase a flight ticket back?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Perhaps he was driving to the airport? I don't know if his story hangs together. However, the burden of proof in criminal cases is "beyond reasonable doubt". In this case, the guy has been fined over $100,000 based on what barely seems to satisfy a "balance of probablities" level of proof. And all in the name of the War on Some Drugs.

[aidan-skinner.livejournal.com]

Presumably he was going to drive the truck he intended to buy back. Kinda hard to fit them on planes with the new hand luggage restrictions.

[babysimon]

It was difficult to transact legitimate business with cash in the Sprawl; in Japan, it was already illegal.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Perfect. I'm afraid I have to steal that as the title of this post; it's just too appropriate.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Oh no I'm not; it's six characters too long. Dammit.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

This has been a week of scary legal decisions (or notification of them, anyway). Did you see the front page of the Guardian today? Or The BBC Website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5280658.stm) yesterday? Apparantly, it is now ok to deport a person who has not been convicted of any crime back to a country where they have already been tortured and where they have a death sentence awaiting them, providing that country's government (ha!) crosses its heart and promises not to torture them.

:¬/

[zotz]

Well, the life and death sentences have been dropped. The whole thing rests on the Algerian government having improved lately and the number of torture allegations have dropped a lot. I'm entirely prepared to believe that these are true, but given that we have no real influence once he hits their soil again, it's a hell of a gamble to take with someone's life.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I know, but they were sentences passed in his absence. I see no reason why, upon his return, it is impossible that Mr Y could be tried for some whole new crime. Since any torture allegations are a bit of a problem, I found the claim that numbers of torture allegations dropping off meant the situation is significantly improved to be dubious in the extreme and, as you point out, even if this were true, it's a hell of a gamble to take.

They're just pissed off he had the sheer brass neck not to get convicted for a crime here. The bastard!

[zotz]

You just can't trust some people, can you?

I think the statement that matters are improving in Algeria has other support than that decline. It isn't improved enough, though.

[countess-sophia.livejournal.com]

American law has been going this way for a long time, it's a result of the War on Some Drugs.

Soph x

[skibbley.livejournal.com]

You asked for it, you've got it

Drug suspects have no rights at all

Property seized and sold before trial

Labor camps-on American soil?!?

[pavlos.livejournal.com]

Great! I can't wait for them to incarcerate diamond merchants, oil sheiks, and gamblers.

[bileandvitriol.livejournal.com]

Well, he shouldn't have been Hispanic in Nebraska, should he. Childish schoolboy error.