U.S. Awarded Loot Found in Rental Car

Nearly $6 million in cash, platinum and gold found in the trunk of a rented car at San Francisco International Airport was awarded to the federal government Monday by a judge who said there was reason to believe that the money was drug-related.

The amount of cash, the presence of cocaine residue and a federal agent’s statement about a man who had come from Miami and rented the car all were indications that the money was involved in the buying or selling of illegal drugs, U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti said.

The $5.64 million in cash, 450 Canadian gold coins worth $157,500 and 500 platinum bars worth $162,500 were found last October in the locked trunk of a car that had been parked in the airport’s long-term lot for three weeks.

Several Claims

The federal government claimed the money under a federal law providing for forfeiture of money or property seized as the profits or the purchase price of illegal drugs.

Claims also were made by Budget Rent-A-Car, which had rented the 1984 Ford; by three of its employees and a security guard, all of whom said they found the money, and by the state, which sought to tax the money and also claimed the entire amount as “unclaimed property.”

But Conti said a sworn affidavit submitted to the court by Michael Fiorentino, an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, established that the money probably was drug-related.

The judge said Fiorentino’s affidavit, which Conti had sealed until Monday, stated that a man using a fraudulent Florida driver’s license had rented the car from Budget about Aug. 9, and left it in the parking lot on Oct. 1, three weeks before the rental period was to expire.

Dog Discovered Drug

After Budget employees opened the trunk and turned over the luggage to authorities, a drug-sniffing dog detected narcotics in the suitcases, and a search found 15 milligrams of cocaine, Conti said, quoting from Fiorentino’s report.

The judge also quoted the affidavit as saying the unidentified man who rented the car had come from Miami, “the major source city for cocaine in the United States,” and had used the address of an unidentified Marin County motel “known for drug transactions.”

These and other statements in the report established probable cause that the money in the car was related to drugs, Conti said.

He also said the other claimants were not entitled to question Fiorentino about his statement because they did not even allege that the results of their questioning would refute the agent’s conclusions about the origin of the money.

Under federal law, the government has the first claim because the alleged drug transaction would have taken place before the money was found, Conti said.