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A $4.64 billion punishment for a Mexican cartel's massacre of American women and children was considered symbolic.
The families of the victims, who ranged from an 8-month-old baby to a 43-year-old mom, were never expected to see a dime.
But a law firm representing the families, Motley Rice Law Firm, inundated federal courts with over 1,200 claims against U.S. law enforcement-seized cash and assets during operations against Mexican drug traffickers, Bloomberg Law first reported.
Lawyers were slowly making their way to fulfilling the $4.64 billion goal with individual claims ranging from a couple of thousand dollars to millions, but the federal prosecutor's office in New York challenged the law firm's legal maneuvers.
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Clockwise from top left: Dawna Langford, Trevor Langford, Rogan Langford, Christina Marie Langford Johnson, Kristal Miller, Rhonita Maria Miller, twins Titus and Tiana and Howard Miller. (GoFundMe)
Christina Marie Langford Johnson, 31, holding her 7-month-old baby Faith, who miraculously survived the attack. ( )
The Juarez Cartel ambushed three mothers and 14 children, all U.S. citizens, in a November 2019 blitz in Sierra Alta in Sonora, Mexico.
Cartel members blasted the Americans' cars with hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
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A mom and her four children survived the barrage of bullets, but their vehicle was intentionally torched, and all five victims died in the fire.
In total, three women and six children died.
People attend the funeral of Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and her sons Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 2, who were killed by drug cartel gunmen, at a family cemetery in La Mora, Sonora state, Mexico, Nov. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
David Langford is consoled during the funeral service for wife Dawna Ray and their two sons in La Mora, Mexico, Nov. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
A federal lawsuit was filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act on behalf of the victims' families in North Dakota, where most of the victims lived.
The judge ultimately awarded the plaintiffs $4.64 billion after a four-day bench trial in June 2022, according to court documents.
The "egregious massacre on Nov. 4, 2019, constituted an act of terrorism," Motley Rice lawyers wrote in a Feb. 9 court filing in a New York case.
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Motley Rice filed over 1,200 cases in federal courts throughout the country to collect assets and cash seized during Mexican drug trafficking busts.
Many of the claims worth a couple of hundred thousand dollars were resolved and turned over.
A truck burns on a street in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Jan. 5, 2023. Mexican security forces captured Ovidio Guzmán, an alleged drug trafficker wanted by the United States and one of the sons of former Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, in a predawn operation that set off gunfights and roadblocks across the western state’s capital. (AP Photo/Martin Urista)
But the Motley Firm hit a wall when it went after $6.25 million the feds seized during a major 2021 money laundering bust in the southern district of New York.
The head prosecutor, Damian Williams, argued in opposition court filings there's no connection between the money laundering scheme that federal agents took down and the 2019 massacre.
"The United States holds a vested interest in the forfeiture assets," Williams wrote in a Feb. 15 response. Ruling in favor of the plaintiffs "may impair or impede the ability of the United States to protect its interest in the forfeiture assets."
The Southern District of New York prosecutor's office moved to dismiss the forfeiture case, which was essentially put on pause until a higher court makes a ruling.
The Motley Firm declined to comment until there's a decision.
Mexican marines escort five alleged drug traffickers of the Zeta drug cartel in front of an RPG-7 rocket launcher, hand grenades, guns, cocaine and military uniforms seized from alleged members of the Zetas drug traffickers cartel and presented to the press June 9, 2011, at the Navy Secretaryship in Mexico City. (Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images)
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The most recent update in the New York forfeiture case was filed May 9, when the case was reassigned to U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein.
New York's attempt to dismiss the case conflicts with a Feb. 23 decision in Ohio that awarded the victims' families $9.93 million in assets seized during a bust in June 2023, according to court documents.
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The federal judges' competing decisions could be Motley Firm's big-picture game plan, University of Pennsylvania professor Louis Rulli told Bloomberg Law.
"Appellate courts that have looked at these issues have ruled for the government, but the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet spoken on the issues that Motley Rice present," said Rulli, whose specialty is forfeiture law.
Mexico's "most powerful and ruthless" cartel operates in all 50 states, the DEA says. (DEA's 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment)
Bloomberg Law also spoke to Stefan Cassella, a former federal prosecutor whose consulting firm specializes in asset forfeiture law.
Cassella told the outlet he sides with the New York federal prosecutor's stance.
"It's not an opportunity for everybody to come in and say, ‘I don’t like that guy, he owes me money,'" Cassella said.
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Both sides are waiting for Stein's final decision.
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