Opinion ID: 199505
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Administrative Forfeiture Proceedings.

Text: 13 Congress has provided for the civil forfeiture of money or property traceable to the avails of drug trafficking. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 881(a)(6). To facilitate such forfeitures, Congress incorporated by explicit reference the venerable procedures for civil forfeiture set out in the customs laws. Id. §§ 881(d). Under this regimen, the government may forfeit property worth $500,000 or less administratively. See 19 U.S.C. §§ 1607. If the government chooses to travel this path, it must publish notice of its intent to forfeit the property for three successive weeks and supplement that publication by sending written notice to any party known to have an interest in the property. Id. §§ 1607(a); 21 C.F.R. §§ 1316.75. 14 The giving of notice shifts the burden of going forward to those persons who persist in claiming an interest in the property. Claimants have twenty days from the first published notice within which to file claims. 19 U.S.C. §§ 1608. A timely claim, accompanied by a cost bond, aborts the administrative process and forces the government to proceed in court. See id.; see also 21 C.F.R. §§ 1316.76(b). If no interested party files such a claim, however, the government can proceed to declare the property forfeit without judicial intervention. See 19 U.S.C. §§ 1609. 15 Despite Congress's erection of this framework for administrative forfeitures, the judiciary continues to play a limited role in such matters. Pertinently, district courts retain the authority to entertain constitutional challenges to administrative forfeitures. See United States v. Giraldo, 45 F.3d 509, 511 (1st Cir. 1995) (per curiam); see also United States v. Mosquera, 845 F.2d 1122, 1126 (1st Cir. 1988) (per curiam) (noting that district courts have federal question jurisdiction over due process challenges to administrative forfeitures). The fact that a claimant cloaks his constitutional challenge in the garb of a Rule 41(e) motion does not alter this reality; in that event, the court simply will treat such a motion as a civil complaint. Giraldo, 45 F.3d at 511. 16