ABSTRACT
Miguel Alvarez was arrested in October 1985 on a criminal drug charge. His bond was set at $50,000.00. American Bankers Insurance Company loaned Alvarez the bail money, taking a mortgage for $50,000.00 as security, and thus gaining an ownership interest in Alvarez’s house. Several months later (but before Alvarez’s criminal trial), the U.S. government brought a civil proceeding against Alvarez’s house, alleging probable cause for suspecting that illegal drugs had once been harbored there. The government claimed title to the house, relying on the federal Comprehensive Drug Abuse Preven tion and Control Act of 1970 (“Drug Act”), which forfeits to the government “[a]ll real property...which is used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part, to commit, or to facilitate the commission of, a violation of [federal drug laws] punishable by more than one year’s imprisonment.”1
