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13 years later, man’s war with U.S. over ‘shoebox’ cash rages on
Topic Started: May 5 2016, 08:03 PM (340 Views)
dcbl
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Good guys wear white hats
13 years later, man’s war with U.S. over ‘shoebox’ cash rages on

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Frank Main
@FrankMainNews |
Nicholas Marrocco says he kept hundreds of thousands of dollars in a shoebox, in his clothing and even in a bowl in his home in west suburban Wood Dale.

He says he’d messed up his credit in college and couldn’t get a bank account, so he squirreled away the money he’d earned at a pizza joint.

But Marrocco says he lost his life savings on Dec. 6, 2002, when federal drug agents at Union Station in Chicago seized more than $101,000 from a friend he entrusted with the money in their hunt for a restaurant venture on the West Coast.

Federal authorities say they suspected Marrocco and the friend were in the narcotics business.

More than 13 years later, Marrocco — who insists he and his pal weren’t drug dealers — is still fighting to get his money back. He points out they weren’t charged with a crime, and no drugs were ever recovered.

Marrocco’s attorney, Stephen Komie, and a federal source both say they believe Marrocco’s case is the longest-running asset forfeiture battle in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

“This was a drugless case,” Komie says. “It’s the problem with this country’s forfeiture laws. Nobody can compete with the government. The bottom line is that innocent people get caught up in the system.”
Republicans sign checks on the front, democrats sign them on the back…True story!
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Member013

End the war on drugs
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clone
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Director @ Center for Advanced Memetic Warfare
reminded me of another case of Obama's DEA....could have been Mr. Tik

DEA Steals $16,000 In Cash From Young Black Man, Because He Must Be A Drug Dealer

(excerpt)

Quote:
 
After scraping together enough money to produce a music video in Hollywood, 22-year-old Joseph Rivers set out last month on a train trip from Michigan to Los Angeles, hoping it was the start of something big.

Before he made it to California, however, Rivers fell victim to a legal form of government highway robbery.

Rivers changed trains at the Amtrak station in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on April 15, with bags containing his clothes, other possessions and an envelope filled with the $16,000 in cash he had raised with the help of his family, the Albuquerque Journal reports. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration got on after him and began looking for people who might be trafficking drugs.

Rivers said the agents questioned passengers at random, asking for their destination and reason for travel. When one of the agents got to Rivers, who was the only black person in his car, according to witnesses, the agent took the interrogation further, asking to search his bags. Rivers complied. The agent found the cash — still in a bank envelope — and decided to seize it on suspicion that it may be tied to narcotics. River pleaded with the agents, explaining his situation and even putting his mother on the phone to verify the story.

No luck.

“These officers took everything that I had worked so hard to save and even money that was given to me by family that believed in me,” Rivers told the Journal. “I told (the DEA agents) I had no money and no means to survive in Los Angeles if they took my money. They informed me that it was my responsibility to figure out how I was going to do that.”

Rivers, who has since returned to Michigan, fell victim to civil asset forfeiture, a legal tool that has been criticized as a violation of due process and a contradiction of the idea that criminal defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Asset forfeiture allows police to seize property they suspect is related to criminal activity, without even charging its owner with a crime. The charges are filed against the property itself — including cash, jewelry, cars and houses — which can then be sold, with part of the proceeds flowing back to the department that made the seizure.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/dea-asset-forfeiture-joseph-rivers_n_7231744.html

More Nanny please....<sarc>
Only liberals can choose not to go down the road to widespread, systematic violence.
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Right-Wing
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Since when does bad credit preclude someone from getting a bank account?
Donald Trump is Barack Obama's President!
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Director @ Center for Advanced Memetic Warfare
Right-Wing
May 5 2016, 09:48 PM
Since when does bad credit preclude someone from getting a bank account?
I know my small stateside bank does not take accounts with crappy credit...or at least then did...
Only liberals can choose not to go down the road to widespread, systematic violence.
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Mr. Tik
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clone
May 5 2016, 09:41 PM
reminded me of another case of Obama's DEA....could have been Mr. Tik

More Nanny please....<sarc>
The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (Pub.L. 98–473, S. 1762, 98 Stat. 1976, enacted October 12, 1984) was the first comprehensive revision of the U.S. criminal code since the early 1900s.
It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

Among its constituent parts and provisions were:
Armed Career Criminal Act
Sentencing Reform Act which created the United States Sentencing Commission
extension of the United States Secret Service's jurisdiction over credit card fraud and computer fraud
increased federal penalties for cultivation, possession, or transfer of marijuana
a new section in the criminal code for hostage taking
re-institution of the federal death penalty
Stipulations about using civil forfeiture to seize assets of organized crime.
You may be a conservative republican..if you are pro life until you get your mistress knocked up
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Mr. Tik
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the Justice Department announced on Friday that most police departments could not use federal law to seize property from individuals when they have no reason to believe a crime has been committed.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in an order that the department would, in most cases, no longer run a controversial “asset forfeiture” program.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/229803-justice-ends-asset-forfeiture-program
You may be a conservative republican..if you are pro life until you get your mistress knocked up
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