confiscated Mooney at Harlingen

[tigers2007]

I believe that the Timbs v Indiana SCOTUS ruling (9 to 0!) made light of the 8th Amendment excessive fines claus. But too bad that decision was only like a few months ago. Yeah its absolutely ridiculous how much crap the governments steal. One of the worst cases I saw was when US Customs "seized" used Range Rovers that were allegedly imported illegally .The idiot CBP leadership made a huge PR circus out of crushing the Range Rovers to make an example out of the alleged illegal importers. Well it turns out that they didn't follow due process nor did anything to hear the importers side of the story (nor see evidence that they were imported legally). I believe this is still being litigated but CBP clearly screwed up BIG TIME.  

[FloridaMan]

55 minutes ago, Yetti said:

Also to the winner goes the spoil due to seizure laws   Many of the small police departments will have some tricked out cars since they get them for free along the drug route.  Hwy 59 to Houston

I don’t agree with civil forfeiture laws when the value of the asset exceeds and is not included with the assessed penalty, especially when the asset goes to the confiscating agency. Such laws are the equivalent of state sanctioned piracy and encourage morally wrong behavior on part of those that society trusts with the application of force and justice. 

[EricJ]

14 minutes ago, FloridaMan said:

I don’t agree with civil forfeiture laws when the value of the asset exceeds and is not included with the assessed penalty, especially when the asset goes to the confiscating agency. Such laws are the equivalent of state sanctioned piracy and encourage morally wrong behavior on part of those that society trusts with the application of force and justice. 

The modern application of Civil Forfeiture as practiced since the War on Drugs and Zero Tolerance and all that also brought us common practice of "guilty until proven innocent".   If you're carrying a lot of cash, clearly it must be for nefarious purposes, so the gov't could seize it.   You can attempt to get it back through the legal system, if you can afford to take on the gov't.     It also created a huge conflict of interest for law enforcement agencies, since they often got to keep confiscated assets.

I seem to recall seeing either here or elsewhere threads regarding various aircraft that were available at auctions through either gov't seizure or bank repossession, bankruptcies, estates, etc.  It seems like often the big hurdle is that the aircraft records may not be available and it might be tricky to prove AD compliance and aircraft total time in order to generate new ones.

Edited August 1, 2019 by EricJ

[tigers2007]

I’ve seen this with my own eyes: “have the K-9 sniff the money. If it is positive then seize it.”

 

I never agreed with that but had to keep my mouth shut as I was on probation for two years. Apparently almost all cash above $20 will have some sort of drug on it that a currently certified canine will alarm in. When a suitcase full of $100’s is discovered, there is a 100% chance it will be kept by Uncle Sugar as evidence of nefarious activity.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[skydvrboy]

5 hours ago, Shadrach said:

neither does flying over gross...

I remember my flight instructor talking to me before my first family vacation with the plane.  He asked if I was sure I had enough fuel and I explained how I calculated the required fuel as well as the weight and balance.  Then he said "Well, it will probably fly OK a little over gross, but it probably won't fly OK a little under fueled!"

[skydvrboy]

Duplicate Post

[skydvrboy]

53 minutes ago, tigers2007 said:

I’ve seen this with my own eyes: “have the K-9 sniff the money. If it is positive then seize it.”

I never agreed with that but had to keep my mouth shut as I was on probation for two years. Apparently almost all cash above $20 will have some sort of drug on it that a l currently certified canine will alarm in. When a suitcase full of $100’s is discovered, there is a 100% chance it will be kept by Uncle Sugar as evidence of nefarious activity.
 

Frustrating, but unfortunately true. 

[DonMuncy]

I once represented a bank who had loaned money to a guy for the purchase of a Cadillac . The guy was nabbed by the T-men, while driving the car. He had two counterfeit 20 dollar bills in his pocket. The feds took the car, because he was transporting counterfeit money with it. I didn't mind them taking the guy's share of the car, but objected about our lien on it. They said tough luck. I took the case all the way to the US Supreme Court. We still lost. 

[81X]

6 hours ago, rbridges said:

must have a better useful load than my plane.  You'd have a hard time smuggling circus midgets in mine.

Well, there’s the legal useful load and the load in which it will still fly. 

Just overboost that 231 and that baby will haul some drugs!!!!  

[Air pirate]

I was never there, just sayin

This is NOT me, just a really cool song and a great display of aviating. enjoy

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2019 by Air pirate

[RLCarter]

8 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

I once represented a bank who had loaned money to a guy for the purchase of a Cadillac . The guy was nabbed by the T-men, while driving the car. He had two counterfeit 20 dollar bills in his pocket. The feds took the car, because he was transporting counterfeit money with it. I didn't mind them taking the guy's share of the car, but objected about our lien on it. They said tough luck. I took the case all the way to the US Supreme Court. We still lost. 

I had some sort of multi agency task force (4 guys) show up at dealership asking if we had "This" motorcycle in our shop. After verifying the V.I.N. I said yes it's here, then I was handed the paper work and was told they were here to seize it, I told them they were 2 days too late. The agent had a strange look on his face and said "I thought you said it was here?", I told him it was here but it's been repaired and now has a repair bill against it and it was leaving untill I got paid. All the agents were on the cel phones, then more LEO's showed, more phone calls. I was instructed right before they left to hold the unit and not release it to anyone, and show the seizure paper work to whoever tried to pick it up. A day and half later the original 4 showed back up with a check to pay the bill. 

[DonMuncy]

3 minutes ago, RLCarter said:

I had some sort of multi agency task force (4 guys) show up at dealership asking if we had "This" motorcycle in our shop. After verifying the V.I.N. I said yes it's here, then I was handed the paper work and was told they were here to seize it, I told them they were 2 days too late. The agent had a strange look on his face and said "I thought you said it was here?", I told him it was here but it's been repaired and now has a repair bill against it and it was leaving untill I got paid. All the agents were on the cel phones, then more LEO's showed, more phone calls. I was instructed right before they left to hold the unit and not release it to anyone, and show the seizure paper work to whoever tried to pick it up. A day and half later the original 4 showed back up with a check to pay the bill. 

Possession is nine points of the law.

[MooneyMitch]

39 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

I once represented a bank who had loaned money to a guy for the purchase of a Cadillac . The guy was nabbed by the T-men, while driving the car. He had two counterfeit 20 dollar bills in his pocket. The feds took the car, because he was transporting counterfeit money with it. I didn't mind them taking the guy's share of the car, but objected about our lien on it. They said tough luck. I took the case all the way to the US Supreme Court. We still lost. 

Sometimes it’s about justice, and sometimes it’s about the process !

[RLCarter]

9 minutes ago, Air pirate said:

I was never there, just sayin

This is NOT me, just a really cool song and a great display of aviating. enjoy

The song mentions the Rio Grande , I can assure you if you drop below 1500 ft or so you'll have a Black Hawk on your 6

[Air pirate]

Just now, RLCarter said:

The song mentions the Rio Grande , I can assure you if you drop below 1500 ft or so you'll have a Black Hawk on your 6

For sure, Stills cut that song back in the late 60's.

[RLCarter]

5 minutes ago, Air pirate said:

For sure, Stills cut that song back in the late 60's.

The BC into KBRO or the ILS for 32 into KMFE both take you over the river into Mexico, even under ATC control you might get followed home.....lol

[Yetti]

2 hours ago, FloridaMan said:

I don’t agree with civil forfeiture laws when the value of the asset exceeds and is not included with the assessed penalty, especially when the asset goes to the confiscating agency. Such laws are the equivalent of state sanctioned piracy and encourage morally wrong behavior on part of those that society trusts with the application of force and justice. 

I am not a big fan of 4th amendment violations.   What I will say I-59 is a large route for drugs going from Mexico to Houston.   So I am fine with cops taking whatever they want from the drug runners.  In the world of carrots and sticks.   It does provide for additional motivation to work a bit harder.   It's not like they can just take it off the perps.   They have to go through a year long process and both the police and the judicial system is involved.  So there is a bit of check and balance.

[MooneyMitch]

28 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

Possession is nine points of the law.

False.

[DonMuncy]

2 minutes ago, MooneyMitch said:

False.

Correct. It is only a saying. But given a choice, it is better to have possession than not. 

[MooneyMitch]

1 minute ago, DonMuncy said:

Correct. It is only a saying. But given a choice, it is better to have possession than not. 

Agree!

[RLCarter]

8 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

Correct. It is only a saying. But given a choice, it is better to have possession than not. 

Not the same, but I use to repo motorcycles, the easy ones were the one we sold. I'd call the customer up and tell them there was a recall and bring it in to be corrected, the call them back once I had possession and ask what was going on that the bank just came by and are telling me to not release it back until further notice. Worked great, I didn't have to go it, I got paid and customer wasn't mad at me

[Mcstealth]

9 hours ago, Yetti said:

beats a reverse mortgage

Yetti is right..the Reverse Mortgage is only a win for the lender. 

[alextstone]

3 hours ago, skydvrboy said:

I remember my flight instructor talking to me before my first family vacation with the plane.  He asked if I was sure I had enough fuel and I explained how I calculated the required fuel as well as the weight and balance.  Then he said "Well, it will probably fly OK a little over gross, but it probably won't fly OK a little under fueled!"

@skydvrboy,This Service Instruction from Mooney will interest you.  It outlines how to safely and legally ferry a Mooney at 115% of max gross weight...

https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4147179/technical_documents/service_instructions/SIM20_132.pdf

[carusoam]

9 hours ago, Jerry 5TJ said:

So what is the usual auction sale price for a 231 with unknown history and no logs?  

Interesting question...

We have an owner around here somewhere... that bought one...

His was not a drug related plane, just the auction with no docs....

-a-

[N201MKTurbo]

Back In the 80s when I first bought my Mooney, I was operating out of 01V. One of the airport lounge guys bought a Queen Air from the government at auction. They towed it from Buckley ANG base to 01V and we all had a good time getting it airworthy.

We vacuumed over a 1/2 pound of weed out of the plane.....