United States v. $129,727.00 U.S. Currency
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Nelson, J.
Daniel Trujillo appeals the district court’s judgment of forfeiture of $128,740 in drug-trafficking proceeds under 21 U.S.C. § 881 (a)(6). Trujillo argues the Government failed to show probable cause for the forfeiture. In addition, he contends that the civil forfeiture statute violates due process by requiring the Government to merely show probable cause in quasi-criminal proceedings. We affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On October 4, 1994, a Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy on the narcotics detail at Los Angeles International Airport received a tip from a citizen informant. Two men, Apolonio Portillo and Daniel Piujillo, had *488 purchased one-way tickets with cash late the previous evening for American Airlines Flight 33 between New York and Los Angeles. The informant gave no physical description of either man, but provided a tag number for Piujillo’s cheeked baggage: The deputy passed the information to the three other persons on the narcotics detail that day, including a Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) agent and a Los Angeles Police Department (“LAPD”) detective.
When Flight 33 arrived, the DEA agent went to the tarmac to locate and identify the checked…