{"id":343,"date":"2018-07-27T14:18:59","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T18:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=343"},"modified":"2026-01-09T03:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:59:38","slug":"florida-drug-crime-convict-cant-get-750000-back-from-cops-court-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-drug-crime-convict-cant-get-750000-back-from-cops-court-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Drug Crime Convict Can&#8217;t Get $750,000 Back from Cops, Court Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Florida cops and courts treat drug and other related crimes very seriously. A conviction can come with significant consequences, including long stretches behind bars and significant money penalties. Many drug cases also often involve the confiscation of money and other property seized by police officers during an investigation. As a <a href=\"http:\/\/media.ca11.uscourts.gov\/opinions\/unpub\/files\/201714748.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent case<\/a> out of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals makes clear, it can be tough to get that money back. State law creates only a small window of time to file a request to return seized property.<\/p>\n<p>The defendant was charged with drug trafficking and money laundering following a 2006 police surveillance operation. Officers observed him pacing back and forth and talking on his cell phone for about 15 minutes before the defendant placed a black duffle bag in his car and drove off. They said he drove erratically to another location, where another man removed a black rolling suitcase from the defendant\u2019s car. An undercover officer approached the two men and the defendant eventually consented to having the car searched, according to the court. The cops found \u201ca significant amount\u201d of cocaine and $738,000 in cash in the duffle bag inside the car.<\/p>\n<p>The defendant was convicted two years later and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Law enforcement officers also seized the money from the duffle bag. A state court denied Defendant\u2019s request to force the return of the money. The court cited a Florida statute that provides that any property lawfully seized by a law enforcement agency becomes the property of that agency 60 days after the closure of court proceedings related to the property. The court said the defendant filed his request outside of that 60-day window.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-drug-crime-convict-cant-get-750000-back-from-cops-court-says\/#more-343\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida cops and courts treat drug and other related crimes very seriously. A conviction can come with significant consequences, including long stretches behind bars and significant money penalties. Many drug cases also often involve the confiscation of money and other property seized by police officers during an investigation. As a recent case out of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drug-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>FL Drug Convict Loses $750,000 to Cops<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Understand why a Florida drug defendant couldn\u2019t get $750,000 back after police seized it and what this means for forfeiture issues.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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