The territory's federal investigative agencies have signed on to a cooperative asset forfeiture plan as part of efforts to combat drug trafficking, money laundering and fraud.
Under the federal asset forfeiture program, which dates from the 1980s, the profits and instruments of crime are seized from persons involved in drug dealing, money laundering and fraud. Forfeiture funds can be used for law-enforcement and community crime-prevention purposes.
The plan "is important because we need to take the profit out of crime," the territory's U.S. Attorney, James Hurd Jr., said in a press release. "The reinvigoration of asset forfeiture in the Virgin Islands sends the message that crime does not pay."
Federal entities in the Virgin Islands cooperating in the plan along with the U.S. Attorney's Office are the U.S. Marshals Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Customs, Postal Inspection Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
In the mid-1990s, according to the press release, the program "experienced a lull brought about by adverse court decisions and calls for congressional action to limit asset forfeiture statutes." Subsequently, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and other federal investigative agency heads called for the reinvigoration of the program and asked that the various agencies "reaffirm the importance of asset forfeiture."
In response, Hurd met with colleagues of the other federal agencies in the territory and developed a plan to assure that asset forfeiture "is addressed in every appropriate case" and to ensure coordination among the various agencies. The plan also provides for training to assure expertise in the areas of asset forfeiture and financial investigations, the release stated.
As examples of the community use of forfeiture funds, Hurd noted that the Weed and Seed Sites in Estate Bovoni on St. Thomas and at Grove Place on St. Croix are entitled to receive $50,000 in such funds through a cost-reimbursement agreement for qualified law-enforcement activities.
