Publisher Emeritus Dennis Forney’s Barefootin’ column on July 12 recounted the details of the “largest cocaine seizure in the 230-year history of U.S. Customs and Customs and Border Protection” by authorities in Philadelphia amounting to 17.5 tons of cocaine worth about $1.1 billion!
The CPB has already seized the vessel, the MSC Gayane, flying under the Liberian flag out of Switzerland.
Although there are no charges filed yet against the owners, much less convictions, the feds’ asset-forfeiture team is wasting no time processing their claim for the, at least, multi-million-dollar booty.
The owner of the ship is JP Morgan’s asset management arm, that leases out the ship to Mediterranean Shipping Company.
Remember the government can seize our assets seemingly at their whim while we have to fight in court for their return at our expense. The Fourth Amendment be damned.
To bring it closer to home, in an April 6, 2016, News Journal article, Mr. James Fisher reported that, “(Delaware) police have seized $5 million in assets and cash since 2012 under the state forfeiture laws, and a special committee of prosecutors and police officials that decides how the money is spent is exempt from the state’s sunshine law.”
Here’s two examples: “In one petition, a New Castle man is saying that over $1,000 seized from his home was not drug money (a claim police made based on the way the money was stacked), but instead, was money from his federal and state tax refunds.”
“In another, a Dover man is saying that $2,600 seized from him were proceeds from a recent sale of…puppies.”
Beyond the $5 million, the Institute for Justice reported that “Delaware is the 6th ‘best’ state for federal forfeiture with over $7 million in Department of Justice equitable sharing proceeds from 2000-13 and another $1.3 million from the Treasury Department.” The institute has given Delaware a D-minus in civil asset forfeiture seizures.
So far, the only arrests from the cocaine ship are several crew members. No word on their assets or the search for the drug-pushing perpetrators, wherever they are.
JP Morgan certainly has enough lawyers to fight the seizure of the ship, but the regular citizens of Delaware have a harder time fighting immoral asset-forfeiture.
In a way, the drug lords and the government(s) have something in common - desire for our assets.
Geary Foertsch
Rehoboth Beach
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