This story is almost unbelievable, but unfortunately it is very real. The FBI suspected a safe deposit box company named U.S. Private Vaults was participating in money laundering. The feds gained a search warrant with very specific limitations (which they abruptly violated), to look at the legal contents of some boxes. However, the judge said no content could be removed unless the FBI specifically could prove the content was illegal.
The feds ignored the search warrant parameters and just started busting open the boxes, confiscating $86 million in cash, jewelry, rare coins and precious metals. When the owners went to court the FBI said the contents smelled like marijuana – ergo the owners had to prove how they came into legal possession of the items. The issues are not resolved, but at least a few judges are rightly looking at this as a clear violation of the 4th amendment…..
(Los Angeles Times) – […] Ruiz is one of roughly 800 people whose money and valuables the FBI seized from safe deposit boxes they rented at the U.S. Private Vaults store in a strip mall on Olympic Boulevard.
Federal agents had suspected for years that criminals were stashing loot there, and they assert that’s exactly what they found. The government is trying to confiscate $86 million in cash and a stockpile of jewelry, rare coins and precious metals taken from about half of the boxes.
But six months after the raid, the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles have produced no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the vast majority of box holders whose belongings the government is trying to keep.
About 300 of the box holders are contesting the attempted confiscation. Ruiz and 65 others have filed court claims saying the dragnet forfeiture operation is unconstitutional.
[…] In preliminary rulings, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner blocked the government’s forfeiture cases against Ruiz and three others, saying the lack of any “specific factual and legal basis” violated their rights to due process. (read more)
The FBI is an out of control, rogue enforcement agency.
THE FOURTH AMENDMENT – “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Isn’t CA a legal state for recreational marijuana?I realize that’s a state distinction and that the Federal gov’t still considers it illegal, but hooboy that’s an interesting fight brewing.
This argument that they smell drugs on the cash has never held water. And I don’t know why this doesn’t come up more.
Cash is a free flowing medium of paper. It’s recirculated by thousands of public persons until it settles with someone in a safe. Of course it could have been used in drug deals!!! That doesn’t make the money illegal to the current holder of said currency!!!! FING A.
Exactly. Studies have shown that more than half of all cash currency has residue of illicit drugs on it. FIB are just being brazen thugs and shakedown artists.
You are correct. That’s how they roll. It is their D.N.A.
Yes this argument does not hold water. Where I worked it was a three story building. It was pretty big. In the far corner of the basement was the evidence room. Often times you would get to the employee entrance and you could smell the marijuana in the evidence room all the way in the basement. The employee entrance was street level. The whole building would stink of marijuana until the evidence officer transported it to the lab. Also the evidence room was somewhat like a bank vault- always locked and only a few people could get inside. So the smell of marijuana in the bank vaults should not allow you to get into ALL the safety deposit boxes. They should have gotten a warrant for each and every box and no sane judge would issue all the warrants based on the “smell” of marijuana.
Side note. There was case law and I don’t know if it’s still this way or not but it used to be that you had to have attended a controlled burn to testify in court about your suspicions of marijuana. The controlled burn was where lab verified marijuana was lit so that officers could smell it to be able to articulate that they knew what marijuana smelled like from their prior training. The K9’s that have been trained to alert on marijuana were a lock. No court anywhere would challenge the K9’s but a good attorney may be able to work the controlled burn angel if the agents/officers never attended one.
that’s what I was about to ask.
Feds also forbid state-authorized dispensaries from using banking services for their transactions…I do not know about the newer versions of currency but the older version had an estimated 80+% dusting of cocaine from being handled or used as straws by drug dealers/users…civil forfeitures would claim its presence indicated illegal activity by the holder they caught with it
It is legal in California for an adult over 21 to possess, purchase or give away up to an ounce of cannabis and as much as 8 grams of concentrated cannabis. Adults can also cultivate up to six live cannabis plants. Smoking or ingesting marijuana is illegal in public places, as is using the drug while in a car.
I don’t think those laws pertain to the homeless in downtown San Francisco or those on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Drugs of all persuasions are bought and sold and used freely in full view of the public every day of the week. Those have been deemed misdemeanor offenses. The cops don’t bother arresting any of them, they’ll be released back on the streets within hours anyway.
No longer the premier law enforcement agency of the world.
Premier tyrant thugs.
They never were, just covered their Evil better. Now they don’t have to hide what they’ve always been.
No, sadly, and provably they are not.
They seem to have completely abandoned the law enforcement part. They are now just deep state tyranny enforcers.
I think it’s safe to say they never were deserving of that endorsement. Seems like they followed the CIA right down the corruption hole into the ethical & legal sewer
They never were. It was all a ruse.
… but… but… the 99%…
They never were. Look at their track record of atrocities.
Rank and Vile, always been that way. Government thugs.
the FBLie
The fbi does sound believable, they might have been smelling themselves.
They are a corrupt criminal organization.
A gang.
I have given up entirely on the America I thought I knew.
Don’t give up there are more of us than them.
they keep telling us that but all I see is them getting what they want and us on the sideline saying nothing.
“In two weeks!”, “Jaw-dropping report!”, “They know, we know” etc etc.
White flag. Don’t say mean things. Get along. Compromise.
Yeah.
No.
See you guys in the streets.
Why when a covered elevated position is more effective.
A friend told me?
And Vortex is my, er, um, your friend’s friend
I almost forgot the “Cold Anger” angle.
And what, besides a cold turd stew, did that gain?
Should be parade around a flag pole reciting the Pledge again? Stand with firm jaw and let the enemy see the steely resolve we hold? That’ll do it, by gum!
“How they will tremble and cry with guilt and shame at the way they treated us! Verily I say unto thee! Thou hast trod once too often upon the holy grounds of liberty and freedom, I say says I!”
Uh, wut?
You suckers do realize they are laughing their asses off at us, right?
They have taken so much ground we don’t have a United States any longer, it is a Leninist state and you can complain all you want but show me your evidence it isn’t. The enemy doesn’t have to DO anything, they are playing rope-a-dope and we are grannies with tea cups saying “How DARE you!”.
It would be funny if it weren’t so damned tragic.
Hungary and Poland have a decent plan but what do we have? The Pillow Guy (bless him but come one!) and Meathead Hannity and his “99.99% of the FBI are herosss” nonsense. Oh, and steely-eyed firm-jawed resolve, don’t forget that. Fueled by “they know we know”.
Uh huh.
I hope I am wrong but I don’t see any damned thing happening that will alter the trajectory. Another Bob Dole/Mitt Romney/McCain UniParty shitass who adores, just ADORES the opposing point of view is our likely opposition team.
election integrity? That is soooo 2020 and it is time to GET OVER IT don’t you see?
On to Victory!
Dumbassess.
There’s no down side to the progressive project
Where?
God is opening eyes with a can opener. Before the year ends you’ll realize you were living a TV show and your season just got canceled. Look up.
I wouldn’t. “They” are not in control.
Y’all know this is only going to stop when it’s made to stop.
My point exactly. Prayer and hope are not plans.
Action is needed to prevent violence when the populations are not otherwise agreeable; do you or any thinking adult believe the populations of the US are agreeable to a non-confrontational solution?
LOL – the smell of weed = illegal in Los Angeles.
The whole place reeks of weed.
From what I’ve been reading about the place it wasn’t weed they were smelling but the stuff on their boots.
I am in IL and the apartment we live in has users on both sides…it is so strong it sometimes permeates connection walls and I can smell it in our kitchen or bathroom
As a married USAF student at Keesler AFB, MS in 1973, lived in a efficiency apt in 4 story bldg in Biloxi. The kitchen exhaust fans didn’t vent outside but into the hallways!! Would choke on the weed smell between the elevator and my apt.
Speaking of the law, lawlessness, and general insanity, it looks like the McCloskey’s could lose their law licenses for trying to protect themselves on that fateful day when the mob showed up on their lawn.
https://therightscoop.com/mccloskeys-could-lose-their-law-licenses-for-trying-to-protect-themselves-from-angry-blm-mob/
Criminals in places like San Francisco shoplift up to $ 950 a day in front of witnesses and cameras and nothin happens. That’s a couple hundred grand per year per person.
that is an EVENT…they can do it MULTIPLE times a day
This fight over this blatantly illegal civil forfeiture has been going on for quite some time. The raid occurred on March 22. Reason.com has a number of articles about it (no surprise, they are very anti civil forfeiture as am I). One of the first:
https://reason.com/2021/05/10/the-fbi-seized-heirlooms-coins-and-cash-from-hundreds-of-safe-deposit-boxes-in-beverly-hills-despite-knowing-some-belonged-to-honest-citizens
Yes. Ron Paul talked about this on the campaign trail in 2012
Steve Lehto has some good coverage on YouTube as well.
So what does it take?
Is there no politician including PDJT whom I greatly admire, that will not go public with the blatant corruption of the entire legal system in the U.S.A.
Surely it would be a political winner.
From Vegas on, the F.B.I., C.I.A. D.O.J. etc have been criminal, and in dereliction of duty.
Just venting here, and I may be out to lunch.
I have seriously suspect that the FBI was running the school shootings for years before Vegas.
You have the CIA out of the country causing riots, murders, etc. then you have the FBI here doing the same calling it white supremist.
It doesn’t take much. All you need to do is what they did in Broward County / Parkland School… You systematically ignore the warning signs given to you, and you simply let the crime happen.
The school didn’t want to prosecute, because it makes their metrics look bad. It’s easier to pretend that there’s no violence in your school when you forbid making criminal reports. That kind of lack of enforcement emboldens the perpetrator, because there is never any consequence to their bad behavior. Exactly like the FBI and the Trump surveillance.
You have an individual who is crying out for help, leaving internet posts, making threats, buying guns… then stories from concerned family members, tip-lines from fellow students, multiple police calls to the home. Law enforcement had all of that. The FBI had tips on their Public Access Line, but the tip operators didn’t feel it was necessary to forward the information to the field offices. But don’t worry, they said they would look into it. Kind of makes you wonder why they keep collecting all this information but never use it… unless you just wanted a system to collect blackmail-grade rumors on individuals… like the NSA data collection systems. Grab it all, then maybe we’ll look through it in the future, or just make it available to 3rd parties like Fusion to sort through later.
*sigh*
Trump knows what happened, promised us he would let us know. Still waiting
Considering 45 needs a ton of lawyers to defend all the fake lawsuits they dump on him daily, it would be rather stupid of him to take on the legal system imo.
You mean by telling the truth?
YEAH Mr. Negative because the TRUTH worked so well to this point for PDJT….just think to LtGen Flynn for a prime example of the TRUTH on trail
This is exactly how the DEA works when they make a drug bust, and the big wads of cash doesn’t always make it to the evidence lockers
Hey their governor just won/stole another election. They’ve got a lot of socialist agenda that needs money. Super railways or something like that.
Guilty until proven innocent.
Guilty until proven really guilty.
it’s California, let it burn…
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
This is an old story from late spring or early summer
Yes we saw it but needs to be heard again as nothing is safe from the deep state.
Time for your mattress to become thicker I guess.
Either needed blackmail material on someone or knew mother load was there from nsa surveillance or both. With fisma corrupted the left can blackmail everyone EVERYONE
Looking for one of hunter’s laptops
New story to me.
This part is N-E-W…
SEPT. 19, 2021 7 AM PT
After the FBI seized Joseph Ruiz’s life savings during a raid on a safe deposit box business in Beverly Hills, the unemployed chef went to court to retrieve his $57,000. A judge ordered the government to tell Ruiz why it was trying to confiscate the money.
Corrupt slobs, the dregs. Who will ever force them face a reckoning? President Trump would not or could not. The noble “rank and file” etc. There is no other politician who even mentions them and their depredations. What trouble we are in as a nation.
The beatings will continue until morale improves
Attorney Steve Lehto’s been doing video updates on this, here is his latest, from July, about 15 minutes long:
about 5 minutes into the video he talks about this particular case of the former food service worker’s cash they confiscated.
“Prove you didn’t commit a crime” should make for an unusual court case.
I don’t imagine that there is a lot of legal precedent
civil forfeiture requires you hire a lawyer to have a chance to recover your own money…can cost tens of thousand$ to get your money back
That’s the same approach Mueller tried to pull off in his testimony before Congress on his investigation into President Trump, they couldn’t prove he was innocent – a complete upside down way our law is supposed to work – innocent until they can prove a person guilty.
Proof again that when someone becomes the hammer (law enforcement) everyone they see eventually becomes a nail.
Sorry Californian’s. Your marijuana smelled like cash. Had to be confiscated.
5 out of 12 of those FBI kneelers are outdoor maskers too. How cucked out can a fed get?
You really want to know?
The court needs to slap them down all the way to that weasel Wray in the strongest language possible, condemning them for their own criminality.
that will show them. tsk tsk
FBI agents drive past dozens of pot shops that smell like marijuana on way to raid and confiscate others property that smells like marijuana. Can’t make this shit up.
The state of California did something similar 10-20 years ago.
The state claimed that the owners of contents of bank safe deposit boxes had abandoned their property and might be dead. This did not set well with bank customers who consistently paid the rent and banked in person in the lobby of the same bank where they had a safe deposit box.
There were some outrageous stories. Some people had to sue to try to recover their possessions. The story that stuck with me was about the woman whose grandmother’s pearls had been seized then sold at auction before she could recover them.
I imagine a certain number of people never try to reclaim for various reasons. That’s probably what this scam boils down to.
How many regular people have the ability to take on the feds?
Of course. The feds are running out of money due to all the covid handouts and illegal invader handouts. Hence why the IRS is sending relentless notices to my employees saying they owe back taxes unless they prove they paid them.
My team members were all scared saying they were gonna pay. I told every one of them don’t pay sh-t. I put together a big package of documentation and sent to the feds. Feds backed off my team. What they were accusing them of was so asinine. It was a total scare
Tactic. Unreal.
They are banking on people just panicking and sending money.
Their money is running out.
If you have cash in the bank and don’t use the account for some time they will notify you that they are going to seize the money unless you contact the bank. Horrible thieves.
I have heard many horror stories about the ATF taking a person’s land because some shard of a native artifact was found on it and they claimed it was for illegal sale. Very often it seems that such illegal items turn up after one gets on the bad side of certain government agencies.
The ATF has blown up the landlord’s house because the renters were making bombs and said it was not safe to enter..
Comment deleted by Admin…
Way to go Maximus…most likely I’ll be next. ??
I hope the people affected had inventories of everything taken, or it will ‘disappear ‘.
This is what they’ve been doing to President Trump’s taxes. It’s illegal but our gov has absolutely no regard for our Constitution or any laws. Uni party is bent and bent over.
I seem to recall CA hiring contractors to do this type of confiscation of the contents from safe deposit boxes many years ago… both from bank and private depositories. Lots of stuff was stolen, though perhaps not on the same scale as above. And I think the contractors (locksmiths?) would get a percentage of the take.
One of the excuses given was that if a person hadn’t checked their box after a certain period of time(1 or 2 years I think) then it could be accessed… though that didn’t seem to stop the thieves from helping themselves to personal property of people who regularly checked their boxes.
Not sure what the laws are… though the laws seem to be written to allow for abuse & easy confiscation of property.
Here are a few related articles from years ago…
California Seizing Property from Safety Deposit Boxes – 4/9/11
https://mises.org/wire/california-seizing-property-safety-deposit-boxes
Our (Not So) Safe Deposit Boxes–Will Texans Ride to the Rescue? – 6/4/15
https://mises.org/wire/our-not-so-safe-deposit-boxes-will-texans-ride-rescue
Australia Seizes 360M From Dormant Bank Accounts And All 50 U.S. States Are Doing This Too – 6/17/14
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/06/michael-snyder/check-all-your-bank-accounts-deposit-boxes-now/
Continued…
A Lesson From the Greek Crisis: Safe Deposit Boxes Are Not Safe – 7/8/15
https://mises.org/wire/lesson-greek-crisis-safe-deposit-boxes-are-not-safe
Here is a simple search I did at the Mises Institute for more related articles:
https://mises.org/search-mises?search=safe%20deposit%20boxes
I’ve been following this for awhile now. Check out this guy here….Steve Lehto’s Law:
My goodness when is this crap going to end?
Malfeasance, rogue… the US has it’s own KGB.
You’re right. This is unbelievable. I am totally lost for words. The FBI with the assistance of a crooked judge just let the FBI rob a bank.
In preliminary rulings, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner blocked the government’s forfeiture cases against Ruiz and three others, saying the lack of any “specific factual and legal basis” violated their rights to due process.
Looming over the legal skirmishes is the possibility that judge Klausner or another judge will grant the box holders’ request for a ruling that the entire raid on U.S. Private Vaults was unconstitutional.
That would jeopardize prosecutors’ ability to use any evidence seized from the safe-deposit boxes in both forfeiture and criminal cases.
What the FBI appears to be doing is trying to claim that the search of specific boxes authorized by the warrant was expanded because of the odor of marijuana emanating from other boxes that were NOT authorized to be searched in the warrant.
There is a warrantless search exception BUT it is for vehicles, because they are mobile.
If an officer smells marijuana in a car, they CAN search the car without a warrant, pursuant to the vehicle exception.
Safe deposit boxes do NOT fall under the warrantless search exception.
Even a vehicle loses the exemption if it is secured by the police in, for example an impound lot.
Your vehicle loses exemption the moment you enter it.
Four drug interdiction stops in different states in 5 years
yes..
In his eight-year career as a drug dog, Smithy,the police dog is very good at what he does.
But, Billions of dollars in cash cycle daily through businesses that sell marijuana, and experts say that leaves a detectable odor on bills that wind up in the hands of people who are neither dealers nor users.
The FBI: America’s Public Enemy #1.
Never fear. An “apology” will be made is due season….
This will encourage folks to stash their valuables in their homes.
Once again making crime easier for the criminals.
Defund the police.
Stop prosecuting criminals.
Disarm the citizens.
Empty the prisons.
Making the burglaries more lucrative for the have nots.
Hey joe, and camel toe.
Private property has got to go!
Somebody in Congress damn well better find a way to rein in the Executive, and soon! Oh, that’s right. Everybody is focused on getting their share of the $3.5T and giving 8 million plus illegals carte blanche to worry about the little ole FBI.
Silly Rabbit. Congress is working to null the Executive.
Corrupt and mentally ill.
Rent Bois…..
The Fan Belt Inspectors 7th floor smells like dope and so does the basement.
That organization is one of many that has developed rabies and needs treatment
So, they are gathering blackmail material.
If the FBI can smell marijuana thru their masks, then how do masks protect from covid?
Usually, the government steals money out of your paycheck, a little at a time. But this is stealing people’s life savings. A death tax before you are dead.
While vacationing in Beverly Hills, Detroit undercover detective Axel Foley will get to the bottom of this case.
I’m guessing Victor Matlin is involved.
Is this the “tomato cans” full of money the gov is looking for to keep it running a little extra time?
***FACEPALM!***
You actually stored “$86 million in cash, jewelry, rare coins and precious metals” in a box that you rented at a strip mall?! ?♂️
However – from a strictly legal perspective: “The mere discovery of ‘evidence’ is mere ‘coincidence.'” You can’t just set a trap – you’ve got to wind up in a human hand trapped in it. And in that case, “presumed innocent” is indeed your nightmare.
There once was a time when “untouchable” meant incorruptible.
In the French translation of the series, the title was indeed ”Les incorruptibles”
I no longer root for the G-men. Makes me want to cheer for organized crime.
Ummm, No, I would have to like the FBI.
Nationalized police in banana republics do this. Its official now.
Speaking of unbelievable stories, look at this from Gateway Pundit –
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/outrageous-biden-doj-fbi-now-going-75-year-old-trump-white-house-author-esteemed-historian-doug-wead/
The level of corruption in the US, especially, the DOJ is astonishing.
It is Augean stables level!!
This is really upsetting to read about. He’s being accused because he attended an event with the person that supposedly did the deed the feds say that person did, not the author. That’s really reaching, and really evil weaponizing our judicial system.
Does anyone in the Justice Department even care anymore?