| | |  Editorials | Issues | March 2009 
Suit Accuses Union Pacific of Role in Drug Shipments
 Greg Moran - San Diego Union-Tribune
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US Federal Court — Federal prosecutors filed civil lawsuits against the Union Pacific railroad company recently seeking $37 million in penalties it says the company owes for allowing loads of drugs to be smuggled on its cars into the country, mostly through Calexico.
The suit is the latest turn in a dispute between the federal government and the nation's largest rail carrier that has been simmering since 2002.
Suits filed yesterday in federal court in San Diego and Houston say the company is liable under provisions of the federal Tariff Act for illegal drugs that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found on its rail cars.
That law says the owners of any vehicle or “person in charge” of any vehicle coming into the country where illegal drugs are found are on the hook for civil penalties.
On 37 occasions between 2001 and 2006, customs inspectors at Calexico and Brownsville, Texas, found marijuana and cocaine in railroad cars that were crossing from Mexico.
A total of 4,200 pounds of marijuana was seized during that time in cars crossing into Calexico.
The government has levied fines totaling $37 million. The railroad has not paid them, and it has fought back.
In July, Union Pacific filed a lawsuit of its own against the federal government over the assessed penalties and the seizure of a half-dozen rail cars. The suit disputes the government's central claim that the company is responsible for the drugs.
Donna Kush, a spokeswoman for the railroad, said the company has no control over the railroad cars while they are in Mexico, and cannot take them over at the border until after U.S. customs inspectors have released them.
As a result, the company believes it is being held responsible for drug smuggling on the Mexico side that it says it has no ability to prevent.
“We believe the penalties and seizures are unlawful,” Kush said.
After Union Pacific's suit was filed, it was put on hold while both sides tried to work out a settlement, court records in Nebraska show. But those negotiations broke down and a stay on the suit was lifted last month. The federal government is supposed to formally answer the suit tomorrow.
U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt in San Diego said in a statement that railroad companies and other carriers of freight have to take all steps to prevent drugs from being smuggled into the country.
The suit, Hewitt said, “marks an important step toward addressing the repeated failure of the largest railroad company in North America to prevent rail cars bound for travel throughout the United States from being used to smuggle significant amounts of narcotics.”
Union Pacific has an ownership stake in Ferromex, a major Mexican railroad company. All the trains in the case originated as Ferromex cars in Mexico.
But Kush said Union Pacific has a 26 percent minority interest in the Mexican company and can't force it to undertake inspections or other measures. |
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