http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070111/ap_ ... ransfers_1

Arizona money transfers seizures barred

By JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago

PHOENIX - A judge has ruled that Arizona has no right to seize money transfers that originate in other states, dealing a blow to its effort to clamp down on immigrant smuggling money.

Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fields ruled that the effort by the Arizona attorney general's office was unconstitutional and that prosecutors hadn't demonstrated that the Western Union customers in question were involved in crimes.

"We are disappointed by the court's jurisdictional decision, but it will not deter our efforts to use all legal means to apprehend 'coyotes' and fight human smuggling in Arizona," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who plans to appeal the decision.

Arizona is the country's busiest illegal entry point. Goddard's office has used special court orders for four years to seize $17 million in wire transfers to Arizona that authorities said were payments to smugglers.

Authorities said the effort was so successful that smugglers began to route their payments from other states to Mexico, even as traffickers continued to sneak people in through Arizona.

Prosecutors seized about $200,000 in money transfers to Mexico in three days in September before Western Union challenged the practice and a judge issued a temporary hold. The transfers had been sent from 28 American states to locations in the nothern Mexican state of Sonora.

"We pursued this case in court because we feel strongly about defending the rights of our consumers," Western Union President and CEO Christina Gold said in a statement.

The seizures violate protections for interstate and international commerce under the U.S. Constitution, the judge said in a ruling dated Tuesday and made public Wednesday.

Goddard said in a statement that the special court orders were responsible for deterring many illicit money transfers and led to the arrests of more than 100 immigrant smugglers.

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