A $4.64 billion punishment for a Mexican cartel’s bloodbath of American girls and kids was thought of symbolic.
The households of the victims, who ranged from an 8-month-old child to a 43-year-old mother, have been by no means anticipated to see a dime.
However a legislation agency representing the households, Motley Rice Legislation Agency, inundated federal courts with over 1,200 claims in opposition to U.S. legislation enforcement-seized money and property throughout operations in opposition to Mexican drug traffickers, Bloomberg Legislation first reported.
Legal professionals have been slowly making their technique to fulfilling the $4.64 billion aim with particular person claims starting from a few thousand {dollars} to thousands and thousands, however the federal prosecutor’s workplace in New York challenged the legislation agency’s authorized maneuvers.
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The Juarez Cartel ambushed three moms and 14 kids, all U.S. residents, in a November 2019 blitz in Sierra Alta in Sonora, Mexico.
Cartel members blasted the People’ automobiles with lots of of rounds of ammunition.
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A mother and her 4 kids survived the barrage of bullets, however their car was deliberately torched, and all 5 victims died within the hearth.
In whole, three girls and 6 kids died.
A federal lawsuit was filed underneath the Anti-Terrorism Act on behalf of the victims’ households in North Dakota, the place many of the victims lived.
The decide in the end awarded the plaintiffs $4.64 billion after a four-day bench trial in June 2022, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
The “egregious bloodbath on Nov. 4, 2019, constituted an act of terrorism,” Motley Rice attorneys wrote in a Feb. 9 courtroom submitting in a New York case.
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Motley Rice filed over 1,200 instances in federal courts all through the nation to gather property and money seized throughout Mexican drug trafficking busts.
Most of the claims price a few hundred thousand {dollars} have been resolved and turned over.
However the Motley Agency hit a wall when it went after $6.25 million the feds seized throughout a serious 2021 cash laundering bust within the southern district of New York.
The top prosecutor, Damian Williams, argued in opposition courtroom filings there is not any connection between the cash laundering scheme that federal brokers took down and the 2019 bloodbath.
“America holds a vested curiosity within the forfeiture property,” Williams wrote in a Feb. 15 response. Ruling in favor of the plaintiffs “might impair or impede the flexibility of the US to guard its curiosity within the forfeiture property.”
The Southern District of New York prosecutor’s workplace moved to dismiss the forfeiture case, which was primarily placed on pause till the next courtroom makes a ruling.
The Motley Agency declined to remark till there is a choice.
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The latest replace within the New York forfeiture case was filed Could 9, when the case was reassigned to U.S. District Court docket Choose Sidney Stein.
New York’s try and dismiss the case conflicts with a Feb. 23 choice in Ohio that awarded the victims’ households $9.93 million in property seized throughout a bust in June 2023, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
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The federal judges’ competing selections could possibly be Motley Agency’s big-picture sport plan, College of Pennsylvania professor Louis Rulli informed Bloomberg Legislation.
“Appellate courts which have checked out these points have dominated for the federal government, however the U.S. Supreme Court docket has not but spoken on the problems that Motley Rice current,” mentioned Rulli, whose specialty is forfeiture legislation.
Bloomberg Legislation additionally spoke to Stefan Cassella, a former federal prosecutor whose consulting agency focuses on asset forfeiture legislation.
Cassella informed the outlet he sides with the New York federal prosecutor’s stance.
“It isn’t a possibility for everyone to return in and say, ‘I don’t like that man, he owes me cash,'” Cassella mentioned.
Each side are ready for Stein’s closing choice.
