United States v. Check No. 25128 in the Amount of $58,654.11

Perry D. Johnson appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the United States in this action brought by the United States under 21 U.S.C. § 881 for the forfeiture of the proceeds of drug trafficking. Intrigued by the intricate turns taken by the *1264 tracking of cash in the case, we hold that Johnson raised no genuine issue of material fact and that only the government showed an incontestable right to the check it had seized. Therefore, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Many of the facts have already been stated in Perry D. Johnson v. Don P. Johnson, 849 P.2d 1361 (Alaska 1993), and in our unpublished memorandum disposition in a previous appeal in this case, United States v. Check No. 25128, No. 94-35581 (9th Cir. Nov. 2, 1995). We draw on these sources in what follows.

On February 1, 1990, Fairbanks police, responding to a complaint of domestic violence, went to Johnson’s trailer home and, while looking for victims, saw in a bedroom a quantity of marijuana, a glass tube, plastic bags, a large triple-beam scale with white residue on top, a mirror coated with white residue, and a nearby safe. The police then obtained a…