Forfeiture Reversed

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed a $4 million forfeiture order.

The defendant’s brother and others were caught smuggling drugs across the Texas-Mexico border. The brother admitted that he had been smuggling drugs to the defendant for over two years. The defendant would sell the drugs and bring the proceeds back to his brother who would take them “to the boss in Mexico.” The estimated proceeds were between $3.9 and $5 million.

Law enforcement searched the defendant’s home and found just under $200,000 in cash, separated by denomination and bundled with rubber bands. The defendant testified that the money was from a logging business and the sale of a four wheeler and trailer. A jury convicted him of conspiracy to distribute narcotics. The district court ordered forfeiture of the cash and $4 million representing the amount of drug proceeds he had obtained.

Reversing, the 5th Circuit explained that forfeitures do not include “joint and several liability” for property obtained not by the defendant but by a co-conspirator. The evidence showed that the defendant earned up to $1,000 per kilo that he distributed, and made approximately $150,000 from his drug sales. The rest of the proceeds had gone down to “the boss in Mexico.” Consequently, the defendant could not be held liable for the amounts received by the Mexican boss.