Court Says Marion County Must Clearly State What Crime Was Committed Before Taking Money Seized at FedEx Hub

INDIANAPOLIS—Henry and Minh Cheng, California jewelry sellers, had to fight for $42,000 that Indianapolis police seized at the FedEx shipping hub. A decision in their class action lawsuit finds nothing unlawful in the practice of forfeiting packages headed through the hub from one non-Indiana state to another that have no tie to any Indiana crime. At the same time, the court held that prosecutors provide insufficient notice to property owners when the state seeks to forfeit their cash. While the ruling on notice is a win for property rights, the Institute for Justice (IJ) will appeal the decision that the government’s forfeiture practices otherwise comply with the state’s civil-forfeiture statute and the Constitution.

“The court agreed that people should not lose their money to the government when the government does not identify a connection to a specific crime,” said IJ Attorney Marie Miller. “That’s good news for property owners, but the court got it wrong that Indiana can forfeit money from parcels having no connection to any Indiana crime at all.”

For years, police have seized cash at the busy FedEx processing center, and the Marion County Prosecutor has filed civil forfeiture actions on behalf of the state of Indiana to keep the seized money. This places people like the Chengs in the position of having to prove their innocence in a court hundreds or thousands of miles from their home, which for the Chengs is in California.

It’s a profitable practice. Since 2022 alone, Indiana has sued to forfeit more than $2.5 million from in-transit FedEx parcels, and the state has already raked in approximately $1 million from those parcels.

Henry and Minh’s experience is typical of many people who find themselves caught up in Indianapolis’ FedEx forfeiture regime. The couple started their wholesale jewelry business about 30 years ago. They travel across the country serving retail shops. And in 2024, they made a bulk sale to a retailer in Virginia, who was slow to submit payment. A few months after the sale, in April, the retailer informed the couple that she could pay promptly with cash. Henry and Minh agreed to accept that form of payment.

The retailer shipped the money using FedEx, and the parcel was routed through the Indianapolis FedEx hub, the second largest FedEx hub in the U.S. There, a police officer seized the package and presented it to a K-9. The dog alerted, allowing the police to get a warrant to open the parcel. After an officer found the cash in the parcel (and no contraband), the Marion County Prosecutor filed a civil-forfeiture action to keep the money. As with other civil-forfeiture cases, the prosecutor alleged simply that the cash was proceeds of “a violation of a criminal statute.” What criminal statute? The prosecutor never says.

The Institute for Justice is the nation’s leading law firm fighting for the elimination of civil forfeiture. IJ currently has class action lawsuits against the DEA and TSA for their practices of seizing money at airports. Following IJ’s release of a video of a passenger bullied into permitting his bag to be searched, the Department of Justice suspended all DEA airport interdictions. IJ is also suing Indiana over forfeiture practices that let private prosecutors bring cases and keep proceeds for themselves. IJ is a leader in civil-forfeiture research, as well, producing reports—such as Policing for Profit—that outline the many abuses of civil forfeiture nationwide.