Some Items Seized in Anti-Drug Push Will Be Returned

Two months after her car was seized by the U.S. Customs Service because inspectors found a marijuana pipe in the glove compartment, Cheryl Caho has been notified that she can retrieve her 1985 Chrysler Laser if she pays $131 in storage fees.

Caho, a 20-year-old receptionist and model, said she plans to pay the tab this week, putting an end to a frustrating episode that began in the first weeks of the federal government’s widely publicized “zero tolerance” anti-drug crackdown. Although Caho told customs officials that she had never seen the pipe before and that someone else had left it in her car, they refused to return the vehicle.

Caho is among a group of people who will begin getting their cars and boats back, despite the hard-line policies still in effect at the Customs Service and, to a lesser degree, the Coast Guard, which began seizing boats about two months ago if even minuscule amounts of drugs were found on board.

Officials at Customs and the Coast Guard say they are not backing down, but U.S. Atty. Peter K. Nunez, whose office has been swamped with unresolved seizure cases, said last week that he has worked out new guidelines that will result in the return of more vehicles.

Now, even if customs and the Coast Guard won’t return the boats and cars, the U.S. attorney’s office might. Because of the high volume of cases generated by customs’ seizures of cars, the Customs Service position on zero tolerance threatens to overload the U.S. attorney’s staff.

“We are going to proceed with forfeitures in the cases we think deserve it,” Nunez said. “Some of the cases now in the pipeline may end up getting resolved with the car going back to the owner. . . . They may lose the car, or they may get it back with a heavier fine.”

In any event, the zero tolerance policy will still be tougher than it was “in the old days,” Nunez said, referring to the nation’s first zero tolerance policy that began at the San Ysidro Port of Entry 18 months ago and produced more than 1,000 arrests.

Under that program, initiated by Nunez’s office and the Customs Service, cars were seized when small amounts of marijuana were found and the owners were charged with felony importation of drugs. Most pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, which would later be dismissed, and their cars were returned after they paid fines of a few hundred dollars.

Under the new nationwide crackdown, however, customs refused to return the vehicles, forcing owners to petition the federal court for a hearing, adding to the workload of the U.S. attorney’s office, which already had the responsibility for prosecuting the criminal drug charges.

‘Innocent Owner’ Cases

“The Customs Service took the position that there would be no mitigation,” Nunez said, adding that with the new guidelines he would try to eliminate some of the “innocent owner” cases, as well as those involving only drug paraphernalia.

“A couple of the seizures here caused some concern,” Nunez said, citing the case of the Atlantis II, the 210-foot research vessel seized by customs after inspectors found a trace of marijuana in a crew member’s stateroom.

“The U.S. attorney has more discretion than I do,” said Allan Rappoport, director of the customs office in San Diego. “I don’t have the authority to return the cars.”

Under the old program, Rappoport said, the customs office in San Diego had the discretion to resolve cases administratively. “When Washington decided it was a good program, they didn’t include in it that discretion.”

Kate Thickston, a lawyer in the Federal Defenders Office which has been swamped with zero tolerance cases, said the mixed messages have confounded lawyers who are trying to get their clients’ cars back. “It’s very confusing and we are trying to work out a procedure,” Thickston said.

“Customs is trying to appear as though it’s not backing down. They’re turning it over to the U.S. attorney, who has more important things to do.”

Thickston said the people who are getting their vehicles back do so by posting a bond, usually 10% of the vehicle’s value, which entitles them to a hearing in federal court.

In reality, the cases “never really reach court,” but are worked out with an agreed fine. “They (federal prosecutors) have many more important things to deal with.”

The Coast Guard, which has posed a less burdensome problem for the court system, remains committed to zero tolerance, according to Capt. Dave Andrews, head of the Coast Guard’s San Diego office.

“The Coast Guard does use discretion in the zero tolerance policy,” Andrews said. “We don’t arbitrarily seize every single vessel that might have drugs on it.

“It comes down to things like whether the illegal narcotics were found in a common area. It’s one thing if it’s found there and another thing if it’s found on somebody’s person.”