Wednesday, June 04, 2003

Sometimes mistakes happen.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Mexican national may sue the U.S. government for selling him a car with a hidden load of marijuana, and then arresting him when he tried to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in it, a federal appeals court has ruled.

[...]

The appellate panel reinstated Cervantes’ negligence claims against the government for allegedly failing to find and remove the drugs from the car he purchased in July of 1999 at a U.S. Marshals Service Auction in San Diego, California.

Four months earlier, the car was seized by the Immigration and Naturalization Service after it was used to transport illegal immigrants into the United States but agents apparently failed to notice 199 pounds of marijuana secreted in its bumpers, the court said.

There are many people who handle the vehicles when they are seized and a contractor auction house does the actually selling of the property. So there were many, many hands and eyes that missed the drugs that were hidden on that car.

[via random act of kindness]