Thread by @SeamusHughes

A few months ago, @KaustuvBasu1 and I noticed something unusual in the federal courts: a flood of claims for money seized by the US Government in purported drug dealing cases around the country. We started digging. A thread on what we found 🧵

The barrage of claims, which has not been previously reported, targets seizures ranging from $1,779 confiscated at the Arizona border by local law enforcement to $6 million in money laundering proceeds collected by federal prosecutors in New York.

At first, a North Dakota judge’s ruling that a drug cartel should pay $4.6 billion to relatives of nine Americans murdered in Mexico looked largely symbolic.

But lawyers representing the victims’ families have adopted an unusual and exhaustive strategy to collect from the Juarez cartel since the decision two years ago.

They’ve blanketed US district courts with more than 1,200 claims against cash and assets US agents have seized from drug dealers and others with suspected ties to the Mexican traffickers.

The cases also have the potential to bring new scrutiny to the scope and purpose of federal forfeiture laws, which have empowered the government to seize billions of dollars in cash and assets from drug traffickers and other criminals over the last few decades.

Some of the money goes to crime victims; uncontested assets also typically fund law enforcement initiatives and community programs such as drug treatment and prevention.

And the sheer volume of claims filed by the law firm Motley Rice suggests an effort to entice multiple judges to entertain their arguments in the hopes that conflicting decisions force a review by higher courts.

The DEA alone seized more than $190 million worth of assets in the last fiscal year alone, its records show.

Most forfeitures go uncontested and require no court hearing, particularly if the value of the seized asset is less than $500,000

Some forfeiture lawyers say Motley Rice faces an uphill battle. The US government disputes that the firm’s clients have a right to the seized cash, or even that some of it can be traced to the Juarez cartel.

How the 1,200 claims shake out may have massive implications for government seizures around the country. This is important and the scope of it was unreported. It involved thousands of docs. You can read @KaustuvBasu1 and my story here at @BLaw

news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/dr…