Three Former Jim Wells, Brooks County DA secretaries paid over $1 million in salaries in three year period
The lucrative spoils of the War on Drugs
In a November 3, 2009, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Report on the state of Texas Profile of Drug Indicators stated a total of 129,192 arrests for drug possession in 2008 with a total of 70,578 arrests for possession of marijuana. Arrests mean the courts, in the vast majority of the cases, searches and seizures. In some cases, forfeitures of cash and vehicles.
According to the report, ‘marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug throughout Texas”.
-More than 8 million (43.90%) of Texas citizens reported that using marijuana was a “great risk”
-As of October 31, 2008, there were 87,216 full-time law enforcement employees in Texas (52,589 officers and 34,627 civilians)
-Bulk currency smuggling is the most popular and effective means employed in transporting drug related proceeds to criminal organizations based in northern Mexico. It is not unusual for state and local police officers to make seizures of hundreds of thousands or millions of “narco” dollars headed southbound through Texas.
According to the Institute of Justice:
Data show that Texas law enforcement agencies rely heavily on forfeiture funds. In a random sample of 52 Texas law enforcement agencies, plus the top 10 forfeiture-earning agencies, forfeiture revenue amounts, on average, to 14 percent of agency budgets. For just the top 10 forfeiture money-makers, forfeiture dollars equal about 37 percent of agency budgets.
With up to 37 percent of law enforcement agencies relying on forfeiture funds, the very lucrative spoils of the war on drugs, Texas statutes wisely gave control of the funds to the local counties. The very same counties involved in the search and seizure of millions of dollars in cash and property.
On August 17, the Corpus Christi Caller Times reported the former District Attorney of Jim Wells and Brooks Counties in Texas has been charged with going on a $4.2 million dollar drug search and seizure forfeiture spending spree in seven years. Former District Attorney Joe Frank Garza, 68, was indicted by a special grand jury facing one charge of misapplication of fiduciary property in excess of $200,000. Part of the evidence, Garza paid three of his secretaries over $1 million in bonus search and seizure cash salaries in a five year period. Secretaries whose salaries were “typically $29,000″ a year. Including in the search and seizure forfeiture spree, trips to casinos.
According to the Corpus Christi Caller Times, Garza’s search and seizure forfeiture cash came from “traffic targeted” by Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Deputies, the Alice Police Department and Texas Department of Public Safety Patrol troopers along U.S Highway 281. According to the Caller Times, “the practice has been to seize the cash and cars. The cash is divided between the district attorney’s office and the law enforcement agency that stopped the vehicle”.
This story draws attention to the practice of authorities and officials and the very lucrative search, seizure and forfeiture drug laws, in particular, the state of Texas. According to the Institute of Justice, due to Texas’s search and seizure forfeiture laws, Texas law enforcement agencies seized in property and currency, “nearly a quarter of a billion dollars” between 2001 and 2008. Currency and property which was seized with the following “standard of proof”:
The second way states make civil forfeiture harder on property owners is to establish a lower “standard of proof” under which the government can take the property. As most people know, the standard of proof in a criminal proceeding is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” That is, the state must demonstrate to the jury that evidence shows that the accused individual committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. This high standard exists to protect the rights of innocent individuals who might be accused of a crime. But innocent property owners enjoy no such protections. In only two states (Nebraska and Wisconsin) does the civil forfeiture standard match the criminal standard—“beyond a reasonable doubt.”[17] And North Carolina has nearly abolished forfeiture entirely.[18] Most states, including Texas, however, have adopted a “preponderance of the evidence” standard, a standard that is usually reserved for such things as contract disputes. Texas uses this modest standard to take away property from its citizens.[19]
And,
# Data show that Texas law enforcement agencies rely heavily on forfeiture funds. In a random sample of 52 Texas law enforcement agencies, plus the top 10 forfeiture-earning agencies, forfeiture revenue amounts, on average, to 14 percent of agency budgets. For just the top 10 forfeiture money-makers, forfeiture dollars equal about 37 percent of agency budgets.
# Even though drug use in America has remained relatively stable since the early 1980s, drug arrests and the use of asset forfeiture have increased considerably.
Another authority getting a slice of the search, seizure, and forfeiture pie, the federal government:
When state laws make forfeiture harder and less profitable, law enforcement engages in more of what is known as “equitable sharing”—that is, the process by which state and local law enforcement agencies turn over forfeiture cases to the federal government, which then returns as much as 90 percent of the value of what is forfeited back to state and local law enforcement agencies. Equitable sharing is an easy way for law enforcement agencies to circumvent state-imposed safeguards against the abuse of forfeiture. Moreover, the researchers found that the profit motive and the innocent owner burden—two large problems with Texas law—are significant factors in determining how much equitable sharing an agency receives. An average-sized agency in a state with a 100-percent profit motive will take in $30,000 more in equitable sharing than an agency in a state with no profit motive. The difference for agencies in states where owners are presumed innocent versus those where owners are presumed guilty is $27,600.
On June 16, 2008, NPR reported:
In the past four years, authorities have seized more than $1.5 million, primarily off of U.S. Highway 281 — a prime smuggling route for drugs going north and money coming south.
“We’ve been working southbounders for the money and weapons that are going back to Mexico,” says Capt. Ray Escamilla of the Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Office. His office wall is covered with pictures — not of dope busts, but of piles of confiscated cash. He recalls some of the big ones: “October 2001, $105,000. November 2003, $99,000. October 2004, $668,000.”
By seizing money from drug cartel couriers, the sheriff’s department — once underfunded and poorly equipped — now can rely on drug assets for a third of its budget.
“We’ve helped the schools [with] cops in school [and] vehicles,” Escamilla says. “I think every year we’ve bought three to four vehicles, all of our equipment, guns, high-powered rifles, all bought with forfeiture funds.”
And, million dollar salaries for three secretaries working for the local DA and trips to casinos. When you’re working hard busting criminals what better way to kick back and relax with trips to casinos with forfeiture related funds?
Last week during a border security conference held at the University of Texas-El Paso, UTEP, Obama Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske informed the attendees the Obama administration will not legalize any illegal substance which includes marijuana. And why should they? The legalization of marijuana would put a serious dent in the lucrative practice of seizing cash and vehicles on highways such as Texas Highway 281. Searches and seizures which netted two Texas counties millions in cash during a seven year period between 2001 and 2008 with the former DA allegedly appropriating $4.2 million. Money which was used to ‘supplement’ salaries and pay for trips to casinos.
With these types of drug war spoils, there seems to be zero incentive to reassess the “war on drugs”, a cash cow for “underfunded” law enforcement agencies.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: DBKP – Death By 1000 Papercuts – DBKP
Author: LBG1
Copyright: 2010 DBKP – Death By 1000 Papercuts – DBKP
* Thanks to Oddnonsmoker for submitting this article
The lucrative spoils of the War on Drugs
In a November 3, 2009, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Report on the state of Texas Profile of Drug Indicators stated a total of 129,192 arrests for drug possession in 2008 with a total of 70,578 arrests for possession of marijuana. Arrests mean the courts, in the vast majority of the cases, searches and seizures. In some cases, forfeitures of cash and vehicles.
According to the report, ‘marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug throughout Texas”.
-More than 8 million (43.90%) of Texas citizens reported that using marijuana was a “great risk”
-As of October 31, 2008, there were 87,216 full-time law enforcement employees in Texas (52,589 officers and 34,627 civilians)
-Bulk currency smuggling is the most popular and effective means employed in transporting drug related proceeds to criminal organizations based in northern Mexico. It is not unusual for state and local police officers to make seizures of hundreds of thousands or millions of “narco” dollars headed southbound through Texas.
According to the Institute of Justice:
Data show that Texas law enforcement agencies rely heavily on forfeiture funds. In a random sample of 52 Texas law enforcement agencies, plus the top 10 forfeiture-earning agencies, forfeiture revenue amounts, on average, to 14 percent of agency budgets. For just the top 10 forfeiture money-makers, forfeiture dollars equal about 37 percent of agency budgets.
With up to 37 percent of law enforcement agencies relying on forfeiture funds, the very lucrative spoils of the war on drugs, Texas statutes wisely gave control of the funds to the local counties. The very same counties involved in the search and seizure of millions of dollars in cash and property.
On August 17, the Corpus Christi Caller Times reported the former District Attorney of Jim Wells and Brooks Counties in Texas has been charged with going on a $4.2 million dollar drug search and seizure forfeiture spending spree in seven years. Former District Attorney Joe Frank Garza, 68, was indicted by a special grand jury facing one charge of misapplication of fiduciary property in excess of $200,000. Part of the evidence, Garza paid three of his secretaries over $1 million in bonus search and seizure cash salaries in a five year period. Secretaries whose salaries were “typically $29,000″ a year. Including in the search and seizure forfeiture spree, trips to casinos.
According to the Corpus Christi Caller Times, Garza’s search and seizure forfeiture cash came from “traffic targeted” by Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Deputies, the Alice Police Department and Texas Department of Public Safety Patrol troopers along U.S Highway 281. According to the Caller Times, “the practice has been to seize the cash and cars. The cash is divided between the district attorney’s office and the law enforcement agency that stopped the vehicle”.
This story draws attention to the practice of authorities and officials and the very lucrative search, seizure and forfeiture drug laws, in particular, the state of Texas. According to the Institute of Justice, due to Texas’s search and seizure forfeiture laws, Texas law enforcement agencies seized in property and currency, “nearly a quarter of a billion dollars” between 2001 and 2008. Currency and property which was seized with the following “standard of proof”:
The second way states make civil forfeiture harder on property owners is to establish a lower “standard of proof” under which the government can take the property. As most people know, the standard of proof in a criminal proceeding is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” That is, the state must demonstrate to the jury that evidence shows that the accused individual committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. This high standard exists to protect the rights of innocent individuals who might be accused of a crime. But innocent property owners enjoy no such protections. In only two states (Nebraska and Wisconsin) does the civil forfeiture standard match the criminal standard—“beyond a reasonable doubt.”[17] And North Carolina has nearly abolished forfeiture entirely.[18] Most states, including Texas, however, have adopted a “preponderance of the evidence” standard, a standard that is usually reserved for such things as contract disputes. Texas uses this modest standard to take away property from its citizens.[19]
And,
# Data show that Texas law enforcement agencies rely heavily on forfeiture funds. In a random sample of 52 Texas law enforcement agencies, plus the top 10 forfeiture-earning agencies, forfeiture revenue amounts, on average, to 14 percent of agency budgets. For just the top 10 forfeiture money-makers, forfeiture dollars equal about 37 percent of agency budgets.
# Even though drug use in America has remained relatively stable since the early 1980s, drug arrests and the use of asset forfeiture have increased considerably.
Another authority getting a slice of the search, seizure, and forfeiture pie, the federal government:
When state laws make forfeiture harder and less profitable, law enforcement engages in more of what is known as “equitable sharing”—that is, the process by which state and local law enforcement agencies turn over forfeiture cases to the federal government, which then returns as much as 90 percent of the value of what is forfeited back to state and local law enforcement agencies. Equitable sharing is an easy way for law enforcement agencies to circumvent state-imposed safeguards against the abuse of forfeiture. Moreover, the researchers found that the profit motive and the innocent owner burden—two large problems with Texas law—are significant factors in determining how much equitable sharing an agency receives. An average-sized agency in a state with a 100-percent profit motive will take in $30,000 more in equitable sharing than an agency in a state with no profit motive. The difference for agencies in states where owners are presumed innocent versus those where owners are presumed guilty is $27,600.
On June 16, 2008, NPR reported:
In the past four years, authorities have seized more than $1.5 million, primarily off of U.S. Highway 281 — a prime smuggling route for drugs going north and money coming south.
“We’ve been working southbounders for the money and weapons that are going back to Mexico,” says Capt. Ray Escamilla of the Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Office. His office wall is covered with pictures — not of dope busts, but of piles of confiscated cash. He recalls some of the big ones: “October 2001, $105,000. November 2003, $99,000. October 2004, $668,000.”
By seizing money from drug cartel couriers, the sheriff’s department — once underfunded and poorly equipped — now can rely on drug assets for a third of its budget.
“We’ve helped the schools [with] cops in school [and] vehicles,” Escamilla says. “I think every year we’ve bought three to four vehicles, all of our equipment, guns, high-powered rifles, all bought with forfeiture funds.”
And, million dollar salaries for three secretaries working for the local DA and trips to casinos. When you’re working hard busting criminals what better way to kick back and relax with trips to casinos with forfeiture related funds?
Last week during a border security conference held at the University of Texas-El Paso, UTEP, Obama Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske informed the attendees the Obama administration will not legalize any illegal substance which includes marijuana. And why should they? The legalization of marijuana would put a serious dent in the lucrative practice of seizing cash and vehicles on highways such as Texas Highway 281. Searches and seizures which netted two Texas counties millions in cash during a seven year period between 2001 and 2008 with the former DA allegedly appropriating $4.2 million. Money which was used to ‘supplement’ salaries and pay for trips to casinos.
With these types of drug war spoils, there seems to be zero incentive to reassess the “war on drugs”, a cash cow for “underfunded” law enforcement agencies.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: DBKP – Death By 1000 Papercuts – DBKP
Author: LBG1
Copyright: 2010 DBKP – Death By 1000 Papercuts – DBKP
* Thanks to Oddnonsmoker for submitting this article
