Opinion ID: 777310
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Probable Cause for Forfeiture

Text: 60 As indicated initially, claimant makes no serious challenge to the presence of probable cause for forfeiture if we reject, as we have, his Fourth Amendment claims. For the sake of completeness, however, we affirm the district court's findings that the government met its burden to establish probable cause for forfeiture on all three of its theories — structuring, narcotics proceeds, and money laundering. For purposes of establishing probable cause for forfeiture, the government may rely upon any evidence it has lawfully obtained up to the time of the forfeiture trial. See 4492 S. Livonia Rd., 889 F.2d at 1268. Thus, in addition to the facts discussed in the Fourth Amendment probable cause determination, the government was entitled to rely upon (1) the fact that the money orders were purchased over an approximately three-day period; (2) the fact that they were purchased from some forty-nine locations; (3) the positive narcotics alert by Brent; (4) the affidavit by Agent Mazza regarding his undercover conversations in 1993 with claimant in which claimant asserted his control of large amounts of narcotics; and (5) claimant's 1999 narcotics conviction. 61 As to the structuring violation, the probable cause we have already held existed based on the facts known at the time of seizure is of course only enhanced by the additional facts of the dates and locations of purchase, which not only indicated the extraordinary effort which went into purchasing the money orders in such small denominations but also eliminated any possibility that the money orders had been received in those denominations in the ordinary course of business. As for the narcotics trafficking and money-laundering allegations, the required nexus between the seized property and illegal drug activity, Daccarett, 6 F.3d at 56, was sufficiently established by, inter alia, the fact that Brent alerted positively to the money orders for narcotics residue even though they had been issued at most three to four days prior (and, unlike currency, could not have picked up that residue from general circulation). In sum, the government met its burden of establishing probable cause for forfeiture. 62