Jul 1, 7:06 PM EDT


Appeals court says AZ can seize wired money

PHOENIX (AP) -- An Arizona appeals court has reversed a ruling that prevented state prosecutors from seizing suspected immigrant smuggling money flowing from other American states into northern Mexico.

The Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday threw out a decision by a Maricopa County judge who in 2007 ruled that state prosecutors hadn't shown they had jurisdiction to seize money from locations outside Arizona.

For more than four years, prosecutors had used special court orders that allowed them to seize $17 million in wire transfers flowing to Arizona that authorities said were payments to smugglers.

Prosecutors said their previous efforts were so successful that smugglers began to route their payments from other American states to Mexico, even as traffickers continued to sneak people in through Arizona. Authorities responded by trying to seize money transfers going into the northern Mexican state of Sonora.


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