Used Car Came With 119 Pounds of Pot <- Read This
 

The car Jose Aguado Cervantes bought at a U.S. marshal's auction in 1999 came with more than he bargained for: 119 pounds of marijuana, hidden in the bumpers.

Customs agents found the marijuana three months later when Cervantes drove the car from his home in Tijuana into the United States. It cost the 67-year-old grandfather 3 ½ undeserved months in jail.

An appeals court in Pasadena said Monday that there isn't much he can do now about the jail time. But the court said his negligence claim against the federal government "is an entirely different matter."

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the government's argument against Cervantes' negligence claim is "patently without merit" and "so off-the-mark as to be embarrassing."

What recompense, if any, Cervantes eventually may get has yet to be determined. Cervantes could not be reached for comment Monday, but his lawyer, Stephen J. Estey of San Diego, said he would press for damages. The appeals court said Monday that the car Cervantes bought at a federal auction in San Diego on July 15, 1999, had been seized by the Immigration and Naturalization Service four months earlier, after it had been used to carry undocumented immigrants across the border.

Cervantes says the INS and the marshal's service failed to inspect the car before the sale. If they had, he said, they would have found the marijuana, hidden in compartments welded into the bumpers.

"Cervantes remained similarly unaware of the contraband until its discovery by U.S. customs agents as he tried to cross the U.S. border on Oct. 22, 1999," the appeals court said. "Although Cervantes denied knowledge of the marijuana and informed agents that he had purchased the vehicle at a U.S. marshal's auction, he was arrested and incarcerated."

The government eventually realized that the marijuana had been there before Cervantes bought the car, and dropped all charges. But by then, he had spent months in jail awaiting trial.

Cervantes, who had never before been arrested, filed claims against the government alleging negligence, false imprisonment and false arrest.

The appeals court agreed Monday with an earlier district court ruling that he cannot recover damages for false arrest and imprisonment, because customs agents had reasonable cause to arrest him.

But the appellate judges disagreed with the lower court's ruling that Cervantes' negligence claims were similarly unwarranted.

The government's arguments, they said, "simply fail the straight-face test."


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I think the next car I buy will be for a auction from the US Marshalls. That would be tight to buy a car with 116 pounds of WEED in the bumpers. Everybody, look in your used car bumpers for weed!

jDoG

not in my own car... :BangBang:

im searching all the cars i buy in the future, maybe i'll get lucky

Same thing I was thinking. Hell if I found that much and it was Chronic, shit, you know how much money you would have?

jDoG

I'm never buying a brand new car again - that's like getting a prize in your cereal box hehe

either that or he just used that as an excuse to beat the case

Hey if it works, then all the power to the old fucker. :1orglaugh

well my brother in law had that happen to him although not in quite as large a quantity. He bought a nissan truck back in the early 80's from a newspaper ad and was cleaning it out right after he got it. As he was wiping down the side interior door panel he noticed it was loose and was going to tighten it back up. When he pulled it back a little way at the bottom out fell a bag of marijuana. I would say it was probably about a pound or pound and a half packed tight. Dumbass called the cops to show them. Of course he's a little straight laced so oh well.

Philadelphia, the land of Joey Coil

hmm, buy an old drug dealers car from a marshall's auction, start smuggling drugs, when you get caught use this excuse. Business idea for all you GFY'ers, free of charge. :Graucho

people are too sue happy these days, be lucky you werent in a country that would'a hung your ass on the spot.

Man, this guy has 119lbs and he gets off with a bullshit excuse like that? I got set up the other day with 2 ounces and now i'm probably facing 3-10 years and assloads of fines. Fuckers.

Damn, where do you live, 3-10 yrs for 2 oz, I'm fucked if I get caught, right now I have 10 oz in my truck. Hopefully I dont get pulled over!

jDoG

ya, i tried that excuse before with no luck. Lucky drug smuggling bastard

Fuck ... 19 pounds. I thought I was doing well back in '73 when I found a Z of Columbian underneath the back seat - and enough seeds to clog up a car wash vacuum cleaner.

I miss my 60 chevy ... :D

Please summerize in 50 words or less.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh


God bless American freedom. lol, up here the cops would've burnt one down with you.

Damn I wish that I could burn one up with the cops over here...lol

jDoG

I used to buy and sell used cars..just small time stuff out of a warehouse... I had a guy I somewhat knew that allways wanted to work under my License... but something was shady about him... I did a little checking on him and found out he did 10 years for meth labs and other drug dealing related stuff...

well part of the way they transfered the drugs was to load cars down and send them through the car auctions and the other guy would buy it at what ever the cost... could of been something like this that was going on and the car was misplaced or something

And it was probably 119 Pounds of the finest mexican dirt weed available. :eek7

yeah, its better they take 3/4's of your stash away then the whole thing and throw you in jail to boot.