[420 Girl]

Michael Coleman and Jacquard Merritt walked into the Montgomery Regional Airport with more than $120,000 tucked away in their carry-on bags and pockets. The men used cash to buy tickets for an overnight round-trip to San Antonio.

They were dressed casually and checked no luggage.
But Coleman and Merritt never made their trip.
Authorities, alleging connections to illegal drug activity, confiscated the cash under a federal law that allows law enforcement to seize money and file to assume custody through the civil court system.
Coleman and Merritt were allowed to leave the airport and were not charged with any crime. But the money was not returned.

In such cases, there is no assumption that the claimants are innocent until proven guilty -- the burden of proof falls to the individual to prove the money was not connected to illegal activity.

The city of Montgomery has deposited about $1.5 million in seized money into a dedicated account during the past two fiscal years, said Lloyd Faulkner, the city's director of finance. The Drug Enforcement Administration did not have numbers for Alabama, but an organization critical of civil forfeitures reported $7 billion has been forfeited to the federal government since 1985.
Coleman and Merritt are still fighting to get back the cash taken from them in July 2006, but a federal appeals court has upheld previous rulings that the money could be seized.

Their attorney, Joe M. Reed, said he likely would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. Reed, who is representing clients in five similar seizure cases, acknowledged the activities of some of the men could be viewed as suspicious, but he said the authorities have never connected his clients to illegal drug activity.
Not that it seems to matter.
"If you can't prove it's not dope money," Reed said, "you lose it."
Suspicious activities

Special Agent Roberto Bryan Jr. of the New Orleans Division of the DEA said, "No legitimate businessman travels with $120,000 in cash through the airport." The New Orleans division includes Alabama.


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