The federal government has agreed to return more than $1 million that California sheriff's deputies stole from an armored-car company that serves state-licensed marijuana businesses. The partial settlement of a lawsuit that the Institute for Justice filed on behalf of the Pennsylvania-based company, Empyreal Logistics, embodies a notable irony: The Justice Department is returning money earned by businesses that federal law still treats as criminal enterprises, thereby defeating San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus' attempt to evade California law, which does not allow forfeiture of the money that his deputies seized because it came from businesses that the state views as perfectly legitimate.
San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies stopped Empyreal vans three times in November, December, and January, making off with about $700,000 the first time and about $350,000 the second time. During the third stop, they came away empty-handed because the van was carrying rolls of coins that had nothing to do with the cannabis industry. Since the marijuana businesses whose proceeds the deputies seized are legal in California, Dicus handed the loot over to the FBI, hoping to ultimately keep up to 80 percent of the money through federal forfeiture under the Justice Department's "equitable sharing" program.
