Couple Forfeit Right to Seized $2.5 Million

A judge Monday decided that a Colombian couple had forfeited their claim to $2.5 million in cash seized by Simi Valley police in Chatsworth and Simi Valley in 1989, the largest sum ever confiscated by a Ventura County law enforcement agency.

Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen J. McLaughlin said the money, which has grown to about $2.9 million with interest, will be split among law enforcement agencies, with $2.2 million going to the Simi Valley Police Department, which initiated the investigation.

He said it is the largest amount ever forfeited in Ventura County under a 1988 state law, dwarfing the previous record of about $500,000. The seizure also tops any federal seizure in Ventura County, an FBI spokesman said.

Ending more than a year of legal maneuverings, acting Ventura Superior Court Judge Herbert Curtiss III declared the forfeiture Monday after the couple who had claimed the money failed to return from Colombia to state their case.

No charges were filed against the couple, but McLaughlin said the investigation is still open.

The money was seized May 27, 1989, two weeks after an informant told Simi Valley police to keep an eye on Floriberto and Martha Urrego, Simi Valley Police Sgt. Robert Gardner said. Officers watching the Urrego home in Simi Valley saw three suitcases of cash being loaded into a car, Gardner said. They followed the car to a Chatsworth house, where they seized $1.5 million.

At the Urrego house, the investigators found another $1 million, according to court records. The Urregos were detained for a few days in the Ventura County Jail. When no charges were filed, they were released and disappeared.

In court papers, Los Angeles attorney Nina Marino stated that she had been hired in April, 1990, to represent the Urregos, whom she understood to be in Colombia. She said that she had never talked to the couple and that all contact with them was through a Miami attorney who hired her.

McLaughlin asserted his legal right under civil procedures to question them about their interest in the money. Through their attorney, the Urregos offered to fly McLaughlin to Colombia or any other Third World country to answer his questions, and offered to testify from Colombia by a video hookup, according to court papers.

But Superior Court Judge Richard D. Aldrich ruled in March that they would have to return to Ventura County by April 19 for questioning if they wanted to prevent the forfeiture. They missed the deadline.

Marino said in court papers that she tried in vain to speak directly to the couple and even paid a newspaper in Baranquilla, Colombia, to try to find them.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office will get 13.5%, or about $390,000.

The remainder of the money will go to the state.