Plainsman1963

By Onell R. Soto | Union-Tribune | October 14, 2004

Customs inspectors were negligent when they failed to find marijuana in a seized sport utility vehicle that was auctioned to a Tijuana man who was later arrested after Mexican police found the drugs, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Yet that doesn't necessarily mean the U.S. government should pay for the suffering the negligence caused the man and his brother-in-law when they were jailed in Mexico, U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster said.

He didn't make a final ruling, but Brewster said he was inclined to follow a recent U.S. Supreme Court case that exempted the government from lawsuits in which the harm takes place outside the country.

Lawyer Teresa Trucchi argued that the U.S. government was acting more like a business than as a government in this case, wherein it was preparing cars for resale, and was liable under a different law.

The judge said he'd think about that and issue a ruling later. He didn't say when.

Brewster also dismissed from the lawsuit an auction company and a subcontractor.

Francisco Rivera bought the Nissan Pathfinder on Sept. 5, 2001, eight months after it was seized in San Ysidro because customs agents found 60 pounds of marijuana hidden in the gas tank.

The following January, Rivera was driving back to Tijuana from Ensenada when soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint and arrested him and his brother-in-law, Alfonso Calderon, after finding 29 pounds of pot hidden inside.

They were convicted and served a year of a five-year prison sentence before a Mexican appeals court released them, reasoning the marijuana was too old to be marketable and had been put in the SUV by drug dealers before it was seized.

Another U.S. judge is considering a similar case by a Chula Vista man, Adrian Rodriguez, who was arrested in Mexico after he called police because a mechanic found marijuana in the car he bought at a government auction.

Ruling that Rodriguez wouldn't have called police if the marijuana were his, a Mexican judge released him after a month in jail.

smoking_joe_lee

Although this has not yet been decided, from the tone of the article the government, subcontractor, and auction company will not be held responsible for selling a vehicle containing 29 pounds of pot. This was a vehicle that was originally siezed for containing drugs. As a result, a man was locked up for a entire year under conditiond that are probably a lot worse than say Martha Steward is now enduring.
One would think that when any vehicle is siezed for containing any contriband or any other reason, it be thoroughly checked before it is released to the public. For example, someone is arrested for trying to enter the country illegally. Their car is sold at auction and later found to contain explosives.
It seems worth mentioning at this time that the citizens of the US and Canada are better off than those of Mexico. One victim was arrested at a checkpoint manned by soldiers. Even Bush couldn't get away with that! Another spent a month in jail after CALLING THE POLICE HIMSELF to report the car he bought had drugs in it!