United States v. $557,933.89, More or Less, in U.S. Funds

SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judge.

Following a jury trial, claimant Ramon Mercado appeals a judgment of civil forfeiture entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Gleeson, J.) with respect to the defendant funds, which were seized from claimant after a routine security search at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The funds, well over a half-million dollars in value, consisted mostly of small-denomination money orders with no payor or payee information, purchased over the span of two to three days. The government asserted that these money orders were purchased in such…