Forfeiture of 1979 Toyota Corolla Auto. VIN No. KE30619534, In re, 82-641

• Decision Date: 29 December 1982
• Docket Number: No. 82-641,82-641
• Citation: 424 So.2d 922
• Parties: In re FORFEITURE OF 1979 TOYOTA COROLLA AUTOMOBILE VIN # KE30619534.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 922

424 So.2d 922

In re FORFEITURE OF 1979 TOYOTA COROLLA AUTOMOBILE VIN # KE30619534.

No. 82-641.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Fourth District.

Dec. 29, 1982.

Bernard Berman of Roderman & Berman, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellant-German Mora.

Jeffrey J. Hochman, Sp. Counsel, Police Legal Unit, Fort Lauderdale, for appellee-City of Fort Lauderdale.

DOWNEY, Judge.

German Mora, owner of a 1979 Toyota Corolla, appeals from a trial court decision ordering forfeiture of his automobile for its participation in a drug deal.

The appellee's statement of the facts reveals the connection that appellant's automobile played in the criminal episode:

On December 2, 1981 between 6:30 P.M. and 6:45 P.M. Detective Michael Gregory Kridos of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department Organized Crime Unit met the Appellant, German Mora in the parking lot of a Winn-Dixie shopping center located in the City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida. The Appellant drove to the parking lot in the automobile that is subject to this forfeiture action, parking it adjacent to the vehicle that Detective Kridos arrived in immediately prior to the Appellant's arrival. It was stipulated that the Appellant was the sole owner of the automobile that was seized for forfeiture purposes. The Appellant then entered and sat in the back seat of the vehicle Detective Kridos was sitting in, with Detective Kridos sitting in the front right passenger seat. A conversation then ensued in which the Appellant told Detective Kridos that he would sell him a kilo of cocaine for $55,000.00. Detective Kridos agreed to the price. While discussing the quality of cocaine that he was selling, the Appellant expressed that he liked doing business in the parking lot as he felt secure from possibly losing cocaine as had happened to him on a past occasion. The Appellant and Detective Kridos then got out of Detective Kridos' vehicle. The Appellant stated that the cocaine was not in his car but that, his contact (one Pablo Mirulanda) was going to bring it. Mr. Mirulanda then arrived in the parking lot and handed a brown grocery bag to the Appellant. The Appellant placed the bag in Detective Kridos' vehicle and removed some grocery items. He then removed the bag from the vehicle and handed it to Detective Kridos. The bag was found to contain 2.5 pounds of cocaine.... Subsequently, during an attempted transfer of the alleged currency to Mirulanda for the cocaine, both the Appellant and Mirulanda were arrested for Trafficking In Cocaine and Conspiracy To Traffic in Cocaine....

(Record references omitted.)

In the judgment and order appealed from the trial court found:

6. The said automobile, the property of German Mora, was driven by him to the shopping center parking lot which had been selected by him as the scene of the illegal transaction. Although there was no evidence that drugs were transported in the vehicle in question, and although the conversations and delivery took place in the motor vehicle being utilized by the undercover law enforcement officer, the Court finds that the aforesaid 1979 Toyota Corolla automobile was significantly involved in the transaction and that its use facilitated the illegal transaction. Considering the nature of the transaction and the location selected by Mora, the Court finds that there was a sufficient connection between the vehicle and the transaction so as to result in a finding by this Court that the vehicle was used in furtherance of the transaction, notwithstanding the fact that there is no evidence that any contraband was ever contained within the vehicle itself.

Mora takes issue with the finding that his car was used in a manner to facilitate the purchase, sale, etc., of contraband so as to violate Section...