For Immediate Release

Albuquerque, NM - The United States Marshals Service has added a new Asset Forfeiture Criminal Investigator to the District of New Mexico’s ability to interrupt financial gains achieved through illegal activity. The new Asset Forfeiture Criminal Investigator will work in the District of New Mexico under the direction of the United States Marshals Service’s Asset Forfeiture Division.  The new Asset Forfeiture Criminal Investigator will be charged with carrying out the Asset Forfeiture primary goals of:

• Building Collaborative relationships with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and investigative agencies in order to maximize asset identification and enhancing seizures and forfeitures related to criminal investigations.

• Collect outstanding forfeiture related debts owed to the Government

• Facilitate forfeiture proceedings and increase proceeds to support both victim’s compensation and equitable sharing by federal, state, and local law enforcement.

• Support the priorities and initiatives of the Department of Justice through financial investigations, targeting criminals, and dismantling criminal enterprises in order to strip them of their ill-gotten gains.

• Offer better coordination among federal and local agencies resulting in better preservation of asset value, Decreased asset management expenses and protection of innocent third party interests.

The Asset Forfeiture Program was created in 1984 when Congress passed the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, giving federal prosecutors new forfeiture provisions to combat crime. This legislation also created the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund. The Asset Forfeiture Program participants include the U.S. Marshals Service; FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; Executive Office for United States Attorneys; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Food and Drug Administration; Department of Agriculture; Bureau of Diplomatic Security; Defense Criminal Investigative Service; and U.S. Postal Inspection Service. 

Conrad Candelaria, United States Marshal for the District of New Mexico said, “Our intent is to employ the asset forfeiture powers in a manner that enhances public safety and security by removing the proceeds of crime and other assets relied upon by criminals and their associates which enable their criminal activity against our society, this new position will aide in those efforts.”

Additional information about the U.S. Marshals can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov.

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America’s Oldest Federal Law Enforcement Agency