People can send packages across the country, but they might not arrive. Police routinely detain and open boxes in Indianapolis, where FedEx operates its second-largest hub.
When local agencies find cash, they keep it permanently through civil forfeiture, a law enforcement maneuver that allows the government to claim property for itself without a criminal conviction. Southern California wholesale jewelers Henry and Minh Cheng fell victim to this scheme in April 2024.
The couple run a legitimate business near Los Angeles. Since 1994, they have imported jewelry from Italy and Hong Kong and resold it to retailers across the United States.
Most jewelry stores pay with wire transfers or checks. But when the Chengs shipped gold chains at a price of $42,825 to one outlet in Falls Church, Virginia, the retailer was slow to submit payment and eventually offered to pay in cash. The Chengs agreed to make an exception and accept the cash payment, so the outstanding bill would get paid promptly.
The Chengs sent the retailer a FedEx label, which showed the parcel was scheduled to go from Virginia to California, and the retailer used the label to mail the payment. But the parcel was intercepted in Indianapolis.
An officer at the FedEx hub singled out the parcel as suspicious, partly because it was headed to California—a “source state.” The officer activated his K-9, got a positive alert on the box, secured an electronic search warrant, and opened the package.
He found no drugs or other contraband. But he did seize exactly $42,825, allowing the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office to begin a civil forfeiture proceeding.
This is how the scheme has worked for years. Since 2022, Indiana has sought to forfeit more than $2.5 million from parcels simply passing through the state at the FedEx hub. Already, the state has collected about $1 million from these cases. Others remain open.
When the process ends, Indiana allows participating agencies to keep 93 percent of the proceeds for themselves. Yet none of these forfeitures has any real-world connection to Indiana. Even if some of the money is dirty, it has no connection to crime within Indiana’s borders.
In the best-case scenario, Indiana is profiteering off crimes in other states. In the worst-case scenario, Indiana is haphazardly suing to forfeit money from innocent people like the Chengs.
Rather than accept the violation of their constitutional rights, the Chengs are fighting back in court. Our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represents them. They not only want to get their money back, but also to shut down the entire cash-grab enterprise.
Police and prosecutors often use the War on Drugs as an excuse for civil forfeiture. But Indiana agencies do not even notify property owners of alleged crimes. Prosecutors instead file a boilerplate complaint that simply alleges the money is connected to “a violation of a criminal statute.”
In fact, the Indiana Supreme Court has voiced concern that—even after trial—the prosecutor’s office has “neither specifically identified an applicable criminal statute that was violated nor established a substantial connection between that crime and the money.” For many property owners, it’s a black box—the opposite of the due process guaranteed by state and federal law.
Rather than serve the public, participating agencies serve themselves by exploiting their location at the crossroads of the United States to pocket money. They make no arrests at the FedEx hub. They just rake in the cash and call it a day.
This is one more blemish in a state that is already a poster child for civil forfeiture abuse.
After the police seized a Land Rover from Indiana resident Tyson Timbs, our firm helped him win a U.S. Supreme Court decision, establishing that civil forfeitures are subject to the Constitution’s Excessive Fines Clause.
We also filed a class-action lawsuit in 2021 to end a seedy aspect of civil forfeiture unique to Indiana: Private, for-profit prosecutors. And we represented a party in a case at the Indiana Supreme Court, establishing that the right to a jury trial applies to civil forfeiture proceedings.
Now the Chengs have launched their own challenge on behalf of their business and all other similar victims. Policing should be about public safety, not profit. Either way, a parcel of cash passing through Indiana is not an Indiana crime.
Marie Miller is an attorney and Daryl James is a writer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va.
