DOJ Agrees To Return Cash Seized From Company Transporting Proceeds From Sales Of Legal Weed
from the we're-in-the-right-say-people-who-folded-like-a-cheap-card-table dept
In February, cash transport business Empyreal Logistics sued the DOJ and a California sheriff for the lifting of nearly $1.2 million in cash from its drivers during two traffic stops. Empyreal, which notes that it follows all federal guidance for the transport of cash generated by legal marijuana sales, was hit twice in California, resulting in officers walking away with a whole lot of legal cash (and bringing in the feds to ensure they could take home up to 80% of the take). Other Empyreal drivers were pulled over in Kansas, during which $165,000 was seized by law enforcement and handed over to the DEA.
The sued sheriff, Shannon Dicus, claimed (without presenting evidence) that nearly all marijuana sold by dispensaries is grown illegally, thus justifying his decision to take cash that had been earned legally. He also claimed he and his deputies were doing the lord’s drug war work and “would prevail” in this lawsuit.
He’s wrong about both things, as Noah Taborda reports for the Kansas Reflector. (h/t Marijuana Moment)
The U.S. Department of Justice agreed Wednesday to return all cash seized from an armored car company used by legal marijuana dispensaries during several traffic stops in California last year.
The California seizures occurred based on what authorities learned in Kansas during a May traffic stop of an Empyreal Logistics car. Conversations between state and federal law enforcement agencies stemming from this stop resulted in a series of events in which Kansas and California officers seized more than $1.2 million.
Note how quickly the DOJ folds when challenged during forfeitures. The DOJ — along with state and local law enforcement agencies — tend to play the odds, assuming that not everyone relieved of cash or property will sue. And if the dollar amount is low enough, it’s almost guaranteed they won’t be sued.
But when the DOJ (and others) are sued, they tend to return property pretty damn quickly. Empyreal was represented by the Institute for Justice in this case, an entity that has successfully secured several returns of property illegally seized by government employees.
And this isn’t the end of the litigation, even though it has resulted in the return of almost all of the money seized by law enforcement officers in two states. As the Institute for Justice notes, the sheriff who claimed he would prevail is still being sued and Empyreal is still seeking the return of $165,000 seized in Kansas.
In exchange for the return of the funds, Empyreal will dismiss its case against the federal government over the seizures. The settlement announced today does not include the San Bernardino County Sheriff and does not affect a separate civil forfeiture action in Kansas in which Empyreal is represented by separate counsel.
The seizures in California expose the bad faith activities of local law enforcement. Weed sales are legal in California but illegal under federal law. Seizing the cash and sending it to the feds laundered the forfeiture, allowing it to be represented as illegal earnings under federal law when the same earnings would be considered legal under state law. This is a crime of opportunity. And it’s being perpetrated by law enforcement officers who’d rather have other people’s cash than a pristine reputation or a healthy relationship with the people they serve.
Filed Under: california, civil asset forfeiture, dea, doj, legal weed, shannon dicus
Comments on “DOJ Agrees To Return Cash Seized From Company Transporting Proceeds From Sales Of Legal Weed”
Hmmm...
Someone must have been paid off.
Imagine if they put half as much effort into making sure they didn’t employee racists…
Re:
I’ll take a quarter of the effort in actually processing rape kits.
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I’ll take an eighth of the effort in actually investigating crimes, especially their colleagues’.
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That’s the problem, when one of their own is breaking the law that’s not considered a crime it’s a job perk.
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Like getting free money and high-priced goods from the ‘proceeds of crime’. The UK got into that racket in 2002, but fortunately, confiscation (in the true sense of the word) can’t take place before conviction of the relevant party in court, reducing the incentive for cops on this side of the pond to steal from citizens.
Who needs enemies with protectors like these?
This is a crime of opportunity. And it’s being perpetrated by law enforcement officers who’d rather have other people’s cash than a pristine reputation or a healthy relationship with the people they serve.
Ah the US police, a group that looked at organized crime and collectively declared: ‘Amateurs’.
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“Ah the US police, a group that looked at organized crime and collectively declared: ‘Amateurs’.”
Well, yeah, but you try involving the federal government in a money-laundry scheme if you don’t carry a badge. I’m just saying the criminals not on the force are working with a handicap, you know?
“Weed sales are legal in California but illegal under federal law. Seizing the cash and sending it to the feds laundered the forfeiture, allowing it to be represented as illegal earnings under federal law when the same earnings would be considered legal under state law.”
Now what do you reckon the odds are the sheriff and other perpetrators of Grand Theft and money-laundering here are in the “States Rights” camp?
Ironically Shannon Dicus is supposed to have a bachelors degree in criminal justice so he knows for a fact that he was breaking the law.
And yet, even though they literally stole the money by armed robbery, they won’t be arrested or imprisoned for their crimes.
Re: surprise?
This is what makes law enforcement such a hated entity in America and even much of the world. This Sheriff committed armed robbery using the power of his badge. He knowingly broke the law and justified it based upon allegations and superstition(doing the Lord’s drug war work). This man and the deputies involved, along with the feds, all deserve to be removed from law enforcement, forever. The sheriff most likely belongs in jail as the “responsible” authority.
Shannon Dicus is a thief
One with a badge, but a thief nonetheless
"Police" should not mean "Highwayman".
“Empyreal, which notes that it follows all federal guidance for the transport of cash generated by legal marijuana sales, was hit twice in California, resulting in officers walking away with a whole lot of legal cash (and bringing in the feds to ensure they could take home up to 80% of the take). Other Empyreal drivers were pulled over in Kansas, during which $165,000 was seized by law enforcement and handed over to the DEA.”
So police officers deliberately targeted legitimate business and stole the money?
“The sued sheriff, Shannon Dicus, claimed (without presenting evidence) that nearly all marijuana sold by dispensaries is grown illegally, thus justifying his decision to take cash that had been earned legally. He also claimed he and his deputies were doing the lord’s drug war work and “would prevail” in this lawsuit.”
It would be nice if this type of behavior wasn’t fairly standard among US law enforcement officers.
Now we just wait for “davec” to toddle along and inform us that if officers aren’t allowed to deliberately perpetrate Grand Theft on legitimate businesses the police will stand helpless against crime.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...
Cops are felons.
“According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear; that is, it is a larceny or theft accomplished by an assault. […] Robbery is differentiated from other forms of theft (such as burglary, shoplifting, pickpocketing, or car theft) by its inherently violent nature (a violent crime); whereas many lesser forms of theft are punished as misdemeanors, robbery is always a felony in jurisdictions that distinguish between the two.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbery
Hmmm
Given that there was not prosecution and it was dismissed… Could they sure for malicious prosecution now?
ACAB
It is always true: ACAB!