U.S. agrees to return $1.1 million to company busted for hauling legal weed money in Kansas | KCUR 89.3
2 min readIn a feasible harbinger of how a very similar situation in Kansas might conclusion, the govt has agreed to return $1.1 million it seized from an armored auto organization that was transporting dollars from state-accredited cannabis enterprises in California.
In return, the armored motor vehicle company, Denver-based mostly Empyreal Logistics, has agreed to fall the federal lawsuit it filed in California in opposition to the govt. The go well with alleged the seizures in California and Kansas had been illegal.
In a information release Wednesday, Empyreal mentioned the settlement does not impact the individual civil forfeiture action submitted in Kansas. But the California and Kansas conditions require nearly identical simple fact patterns, which indicates the govt may possibly agree to a related resolution in this article.
The U.S. Attorney’s Business office has declined to remark on the scenario, indicating it does not converse about pending litigation.
Past 12 months, a sheriff’s deputy in Dickinson County, Kansas, stopped a person of Empyreal’s automobiles on Interstate 70 for a targeted visitors violation and seized just about $166,000 in dollars it was transporting from legal healthcare marijuana dispensaries in Kansas City, Missouri, to a credit history union in Colorado.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office environment in Kansas subsequently filed a civil forfeiture motion towards Empyreal, arguing the seized hard cash was traceable to revenue that violated the federal Managed Substances Act. (Hashish is categorized as a Agenda I drug beneath the act.)
The lawsuit Empyreal has agreed to dismiss accused regulation enforcement officers in California and Kansas of performing in concert with the Drug Enforcement Administration to carry out “pretextual stops” of Empyreal’s motor vehicles and then turning the seized hard cash in excess of to federal regulation enforcement for forfeiture proceedings under the federal equitable sharing application.
Below the program, the federal government shares belongings seized in civil forfeitures with point out and nearby law enforcement companies.
“Empyreal was operating legally beneath California regulation, but with latest federal civil forfeiture rules, even compliant enterprises can be focused,” Dan Alban, a attorney for Empyreal, reported in a assertion.
Empyreal’s lawsuit alleged that the Dickinson County sheriff’s deputy pulled around Empyreal’s Ford Transit van as it was heading east on I-70 for the reason that its Colorado license plate tag was marginally included by the license plate holder.
Empyreal and the U.S. Attorney’s Business office in Kansas agreed previous thirty day period to stay the Kansas forfeiture scenario for 60 days when the functions take a look at mediation and “continue to get the job done towards a resolution through the keep,” according to courtroom documents.
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