cannabisnews.com: Busted For Pot In Government Car





Busted For Pot In Government Car
Posted by CN Staff on August 09, 2003 at 18:34:03 PT
News Story
Source: CBS News
(CBS) A bittersweet homecoming for Tijuana printers Francisco Rivera and Alfonso Calderon: sweet, for their release from Mexico's most hellish prison, bitter, because they were falsely imprisoned as drug runners after buying a car from the U.S. Marshals loaded with hidden marijuana. The men were arrested at a Mexican checkpoint when solders found 19 pounds of pot hidden in the truck. They bought the truck at a federal lot near San Diego where vehicles seized from drug smugglers and other criminals are sold at government auctions.
A thorough inspection is required, yet, as CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker reports, U.S. customs agents missed the hidden pot. A Mexican judge couldn't believe Americans with dogs and technology didn't spot the drugs and sentenced the two printers to five years in prison. The U.S., not only ignored their pleas for help, but fought to keep exonerating evidence from their attorneys. "They turned their back on us at the moment we needed them most," says Alfonso Calderon, speaking in Spanish. "They were the ones who got us into this mess. They sold us a car loaded with drugs." They were released only when their attorneys proved the moldy marijuana was in the car long before the printers bought it. The same thing happened to 67-year-old Tijuana businessman Jose Aguado Cervantes. He spent more than three months in a U.S. jail after agents found 119 pounds of marijuana hidden in the bumper of a car he'd bought at the U.S. auction. "I put 100 percent of my trust in the American government," he says in Spanish. "I never imagined they would sell me a car loaded with drugs. No one from the government would speak on camera, but in legal documents, U.S. attorneys say the government did nothing wrong and since some of the cars auctioned here were seized from drug smugglers, the onus, they say, is on the buyers to make sure the cars are drug free. In short, buyers beware. "I don't think 'as is' to the normal consumer means, 'If I buy it and it's stuffed full of drugs that I'm unaware of and I get arrested, that's my problem,'" says Teresa Trucchi, attorney for Rivera and Calderon. Trucchi said the U.S. has a responsibility to search seized cars. In the Cervantes case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals called the government's position "embarrassing" and threw it back to a lower court. Still, the U.S. attorney claims the government has immunity and vows to fight to the Supreme Court. "It's shameful the U.S. government is hiding behind excuses," says Calderon. "I don't know what law gave them the right to damage lives." No one knows how many drug-laden cars the U.S. has sold. In recent weeks a California man was thrown in a Mexican jail when 33 pounds of marijuana were found in a car he bought from the U.S. government. Note: U.S. attorneys say the government did nothing wrong and since some of the cars auctioned here were seized from drug smugglers, the onus, they say, is on the buyers to make sure the cars are drug free. In short, buyers beware.Source: CBS NewsPublished: August 7, 2003Copyright: MMIII, CBS Worldwide Inc.Website: http://www.cbsnews.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by mayan on August 10, 2003 at 03:01:40 PT
Hee-Hee!
Aside from the lives that were temporarily(how long did these guys serve?)ruined by these "busts", this article is hilarious! This article perfectly highlights the absurdity of the "war on drugs". You're right, goneposthole, these cars might sell like hotcakes now! Even if the seized cars don't already have drugs in them, how can the authorities prove drugs weren't already stuffed in the car if you happen to get busted? If one doesn't leave prints or any other evidence linking one's drugs to oneself, one may have an argument. It would be worth a try at least!
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Comment #2 posted by Petard on August 10, 2003 at 00:53:20 PT
Double Dipping the til
Part of the reason for this new prohibition is the economics, just as Prohibition v1.0 was to get the majority of people sober and employed in the burgeoning industrial age of the time. The Temperance Movement was funded by business and tycoons needing workers and the people were drunks for the most part and that interfered. Now, by selling cars to unsuspecting people that were seized in a redistribution of wealth the Fed insures even more wealth redistribution as it can repeatedly seize the vehicle and repeatedly sell it. Plus the Fed gets to incarcerate at least twice as many, their attorney cronies get to collect twice as many legal fees, the whole prison-industrial complex gets a continous input of subjects through repetitive seizures of these vehicles. Pretty soon they'll start leaving a little behind inside seized homes so they can repeatedly seize them too. Why plant evidence when they can simply leave it intact once they do find it? A Federal perpetual motion machine.
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Comment #1 posted by goneposthole on August 09, 2003 at 19:31:21 PT
oh boy
siezed vehicles at auction are going to be a hot commodity. 
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