Tuscaloosa Cty Stop Led To First Conviction Under Patriot Act Provision

[Syrinx]

It seems rather obvious this guy was involved in drug trafficking, but I still don't think he should be able to be arrested and convicted just because he was carrying a lot of money.

WASHINGTON | A routine traffic stop by a Tuscaloosa County sheriff’s deputy last October eventually became the first case in the nation of someone being convicted under a provision of the Patriot Act that allows the arrest of people smuggling large amounts of cash.

Javier Garcia-Lara, a Mexican citizen, was stopped by the deputy on Interstate 20/59. Police said a large bundle of cash, totaling $824,605, was found hidden in a specially made compartment in a pickup Garcia-Lara was driving.

Garcia-Lara could not have been arrested for bulk-cash smuggling if he had been caught a little more than two years earlier.

“Before passage of the Patriot Act, law enforcement officers would seize hidden bulk cash currency but were forced to release the offender without charging him," said Alice H. Martin, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, in a statement released last year.

In a speech Tuesday highlighting the newly released Justice Department/sreport, “The USA Patriot Act at Work," Attorney General John Ashcroft said the law was intended to save lives from terrorist attacks, but it has had other benefits as well.

*snip*

(free reg. required)

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040716/NEWS/407160341/1007

[PragMantisT]

1. Yeah, in the good old days

they would just have confiscated the money (under forfeiture laws) and prosecuted him normally. I feel so much safer.

What a country!

[gatlingforme]

4. forfeiture laws are specific where the person has to show intent

to deliver or possession.. in any case, The Patriot Act is working well at deminishing the constitution.

[marano]

2. What was he convicted of?

I could not access the article without registering with the paper so I did not get to read it.

[Syrinx]

3. for "smuggling cash" apparently

The article doesn't get anymore specific.

Here's login info from http://bugmenot.com if you want to read it. I haven't tested the login.

[e-mail]
tuscanews