A lawsuit by an armored automotive firm accuses the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and San Bernardino County Sheriff’s division of illegally seizing money it was transporting for licensed hashish corporations in California, the Los Angeles Times studies. Empyreal Logistics alleges the sheriff’s division seized greater than $1.1 million in money over two stops and the FBI is making an attempt to confiscate the money, claiming it’s tied to federal drug or cash laundering crimes, however the company has specified no illegal conduct and hasn’t charged anybody with a criminal offense.
Dan Alban, a senior lawyer on the Institute for Justice, a bunch that fights forfeiture excesses within the U.S. and is representing Empyreal in its lawsuit, known as the case “among the many extra egregious” the group has ever seen including that the seizures are a “very cynical try to take advantage of the variations between federal and state regulation.”
Throughout the first cease on a Mojave Desert freeway in November, the driving force of an armored automotive was carrying $712,000 in money from licensed hashish corporations when San Bernadino Sheriff’s deputies pulled him over, interrogated him, seized the money, and turned it over to the FBI. A number of weeks later, the identical division stopped the identical driver in Rancho Cucamonga and seized one other $350,000 that was being transported for state-approved cannabusinesses.
Empyreal contends that it follows insurance policies outlined by the U.S. Treasury Division and that the money it transports comes from companies which might be in good standing beneath California regulation. California’s regulation additionally consists of protections for banks serving licensed hashish trade operators.
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus argues that greater than 80% of hashish bought within the state is cultivated illegally however didn’t present proof that the money was linked to any unlawful operations.
“My deputies are skilled, and I’m assured we’ll prevail,” Dicus informed the Occasions.
Video footage from the van captured the deputies counting the money from the $350,000 seizure and voicing disappointment that it wasn’t extra.
Within the lawsuit, Empyreal describes the stops as “freeway robberies” by authorities brokers searching for to bolster their budgets with forfeiture money.
The case is in U.S. District Courtroom in Riverside, California.
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