United States v. Property, Parcel of Francisco Aguilar, Claimant-Appellant

FEINBERG, Circuit Judge.

The principal issue in this appeal is the constitutionality of the civil forfeiture procedures in effect prior to enactment of the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act (“CAF-RA”). 1 The law prior to CAFRA allowed the government to seize property on a mere showing of probable cause and then placed the burden of proof on the claimant to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the property was not subject to forfeiture. Following this pre-CAFRA procedure, the government seized three properties owned by appellant Francisco Aguilar and commenced civil forfeiture…