got $750??? if so the feds say your a criminal, and is going to seize the money until you can prove your not a criminal if you send the money to anyone by wire. Original Article State targets wire transfers Focus on people-smuggling also snares innocents Susan Carroll Republic Tucson Bureau May. 28, 2005 12:00 AM A task force that targets human-smuggling organizations by analyzing wire transfers has netted about $4 million since March, hitting traffickers hard during a prime time for illegal border crossings and resulting in at least 55 arrests. But critics say Arizona's latest anti-smuggling initiative, which uses computer analysis to periodically target all Western Union transactions over $750, also has snared innocent people sending money to family members. The task force led by the Arizona Attorney General's Office uses a state law that took effect in August to go after proceeds associated with people smuggling, estimated at $320 million annually in Phoenix alone. Since late 2004, the task force has frozen about $10 million in wire transfers. However, it returned an estimated 10 to 15 percent of the money after finding the intended recipients were not smugglers. The wire-transfer investigations led to trafficking suspects such as Roberto Navarez-Vega, who detectives said picked up $40,000 in smuggling proceeds from Western Union in an 18-month span. Navarez-Vega's cellphone kept ringing during a police interrogation last fall. When he answered, the caller said: "We have a big load. Where do you want us to put these people?" court records show. But the process is not always so clean. On April 1, Luis Martinez, an engineer whose wife used to work for the Arizona Attorney General's Office, went to a Western Union office in Tucson to pick up $1,000. His wife wired the money from Saipan, where she now works as a prosecutor, so he could pay bills and buy their teenage son medication after dental surgery. He was told the money was frozen and eventually tracked down a detective. "They grilled me like I was a criminal," Martinez said. "I was shocked. They assume everybody is guilty and let the chips fall where they may. It's wrong." How it works Since 2000, when federal agents reported record-setting arrests of undocumented immigrants along Arizona's stretch of border with Mexico, law enforcement officials looked for new ways to go after smuggling organizations and cut down on related violence in Phoenix, a major distribution hub for traffickers, said Andrea Esquer, an Attorney General's Office spokeswoman. The office had the power to seize the assets of organized-crime syndicates but not specifically those of human traffickers, she said. Last year's law gave the task force the ability to seek seizure warrants from judges for wire transfer data. The warrants give investigators a window, typically of less than two months to sift through the tens of thousands of wire transfers that pass through the Western Union's system each hour of each day in search of smuggling money. The process works by freezing all transactions over $750. Then a detective from the task force, which includes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state Department of Public Safety investigators, contacts the intended recipient, Esquer said. In some cases, the person who went to pick up the money was given a phone number for an investigator to call first. If the person is able to verify his or her identity and prove he or she has a legitimate reason to send the money, the funds are unfrozen within a matter of days, Esquer said. The money that was intended for smugglers stays frozen and is eventually funneled into a state anti-racketeering fund that pays for the task force's operations, she added. During the most recent seizure warrant, from March 11 to April 22, investigators initially froze $4.685 million and then released $714,000. The warrant is still sealed in Maricopa County Superior Court, but officials reported making 55 arrests, detaining 143 undocumented immigrants, releasing four people who were held hostage and confiscating weapons, marijuana and cocaine during related investigations. An earlier search-warrant affidavit from November 2004 offered a glimpse into the illegal business. Documents identified Navarez-Vega as a smuggling suspect who used Western Union to receive money for years from states including Illinois, Louisiana, Virginia, New York and Wisconsin. According to Western Union records, he picked up at least 100 wire transfers in 2004. When the task force intercepted a wire transfer in October, Navarez-Vega called to recover the money and was drawn into a police sting that also implicated Rodolfo R. Acedo, another smuggling suspect, according to court records. Acedo is quoted in court documents as saying that there is "a lot of competition" in the smuggling business and estimating that he transported about 15 undocumented immigrants each week. "We feel this has been successful," Esquer said. "We've intervened in a number of kidnappings. We've stopped drug smugglers. We've stopped some organizations in human smuggling. So we feel we've at least made a dent into it." System 'misfired' But some immigration attorneys have said that the operation is freezing money sent for legitimate purposes, even money that is used to pay the U.S. government bonds for undocumented immigrants. Chris Stender, a Phoenix immigration attorney, said his legal assistant routinely used Western Union to receive money to post bonds for clients but found that a number of transactions were frozen. In some cases, clients were unable to negotiate the system to get the money back or couldn't afford a lawyer to fight for the funds, several attorneys said. "They were earmarking large dollar transactions," Stender said. "Certainly, there are legitimate reasons to send those types of funds" Esquer, of the Attorney General's Office, said that the money is merely detained and that it is not necessary to have a lawyer to get the funds released. "We liken it to going to the airport and your luggage being searched," she said. "If there's nothing there, you move on your way and you fly to your destination. If the money is legitimate, all we do is detain it, we don't seize it at that time. If the person comes forward and shows us the proper ID, we release it." But Martinez, the engineer who tried to get the $1,000 sent by his wife, said he got the run-around from Western Union officials and investigators. He called 1-800 number after 1-800 number, he said, and was told at one point that his money was stolen. Martinez said one Western Union employee said the task force was targeting people with Hispanic last names, a charge Esquer denies. Martinez said that he finally ended up talking to a detective on the task force but that it still took a day and a half to get the money back. After Martinez's wife, Marie, involved contacts from when she worked in the Attorney General's Office, the money was freed. The couple received an apologetic e-mail from the Attorney General's Office that said the system "misfired" in their case, he added. "If my wife hadn't been an attorney, what would we have done to get that money back?" he asked. "I really feel for people who haven't done anything wrong but may not have the money for a lawyer. I just wonder how many people fall through the cracks." Reach the reporter at susan.carroll@arizonarepublic.com or 1-(520)-207-6007.