(From Wire Reports)

MIAMI -- A federal appeals court is blocking a drug agent's seizure of
$242,484 cash from a Miami import-export company owner who flew the
money from New York.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a judge's forfeiture
order on the airport seizure, citing the weak indications of a drug
connection to Deborah Stanford.

Stanford, owner of Mike's Import and Export, lost the money in 1998
and has been fighting to get it back ever since.

"Courts exist largely to draw lines," Judge J.L. Edmondson wrote for
the three-judge panel Wednesday.

"More than suspicion is necessary. This record is not enough to
justify separating Ms. Stanford from her property,"the judge wrote.
The decision comes in an area of the law where property-rights
activists have complained for years of government overreaching.