US Customs Seizes Ohio Family’s Life Savings at Airport
3rd June 2018
Rustem Kazazi, 64, was headed to his native Albania to visit relatives in October, according to a federal lawsuit that he, his wife, Lejla, and son, Erald, filed this week in Ohio against the agency and others.
The suit alleges Customs and Border Protection used civil forfeiture laws to take the money without arresting or charging anyone with a crime.
As they far too often do.
Customs agents “interrogated him without a translator, and then seized his family’s life savings without charging anyone with a crime,” according to the Institute for Justice, whose attorney, Wesley Hottot, is representing the Kazazi family in the lawsuit.
The Institute for Justice does great work, certainly much more so than the ACLU.
In December, Customs and Border Protection sent Kazazi a notice saying agents had seized the cash because it was “involved in a smuggling/drug trafficking/money laundering operation,” according to the lawsuit. The agency also said $57,330 was seized, or $770 less than Kazazi was carrying, the suit said.
Your tax dollars at work.