United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Richard Lee Bailey, Defendant-appellant.united States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. John Tucker Glover, Defendant-appellant.united States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Pedro Blake Jane, Defendant-appellant, 72 F.3d 136 (9th Cir. 1995)

Before GOODWIN and HAWKINS, Circuit Judges, and FITZGERALD^** , District Judge.

MEMORANDUM^*** 

The sole question presented in this appeal is whether the district court erred in denying appellants' motion to dismiss their indictment based on a violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution. This court has held that a criminal prosecution following an administrative forfeiture of unclaimed property does not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause. See United States v. Cretacci, 62 F.3d 307 (9th Cir. 1995).

The parties do not dispute that the property at issue--two Ford pickup trucks, an electronic scale, a handgun and ammunition, and $2,231 in U.S. currency--was seized and administratively forfeited in May 1994, in connection with the drug trafficking offenses charged against appellants. It is also undisputed that appellants received adequate notice of the forfeiture of their property and failed to file a claim of ownership for any of the property.

We find that this case is controlled by Cretacci. By failing to file a claim in the civil forfeiture proceeding, appellants effectively abandoned any interest in the forfeited property. "Just as the seizure of abandoned property cannot be said to implicate the former owner's privacy rights ... the forfeiture of abandoned property cannot be said to implicate the former owner's double jeopardy rights." Cretacci, 62 F.3d at 310-11. Accordingly, the uncontested administrative forfeiture of property did not serve to punish appellants and, therefore, the pending criminal prosecution cannot constitute double jeopardy.

AFFIRMED.