By Dane Schiller
Houston Chronicle
As a Texas borderland drug gangster known as “Double Zero” sits in federal prison, a treasure chest of his gold and diamond-encrusted bling is about to be set free.
The loot is headed for an auction to be simulcast Saturday on the Web after being seized by federal agents from Jose Luis Arce Jr.'s spacious Galveston County home.
Rings and necklaces handcrafted with the 28-year-old’s “00" call sign and images of Mexico’s saint of death will go to the highest bidder, provided it isn’t a member of Arce’s family.
His assets, which also included homes, cars and bank accounts, are just a taste of the wealth taken from criminals nationwide under an increasingly utilized 25-year-old program that in the past five years has raised nearly $4 billion.
The case against Arce was launched in 2005, after a Texas state trooper stopped a border-bound truck loaded with $784,860 in cash -- all money from selling drugs.
“He did have a flair for extravagant things,” attorney Michael McCrum recalled of Arce, an American citizen who was arrested in 2005 and later pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges. He is from Laredo, but was part of a drug-trafficking organization that did business in Houston and Dallas.
The pride of his collection was a gold necklace with 69 diamonds and nine Santa Muertes fastened to a hefty chain with his “00" symbol.
“It is their bling. It makes a statement,” said Dan Webb, a veteran Texas Department of Public Safety narcotics officer. “They’ve got more money than they know what to do with.”
The seized money is put in a general fund and distributed through a budgetary process. It can go for everything from police cars to repaying victims.
Impact on families
A 52-foot yacht worth about $750,000 was recently seized in the Houston area, as have been planes, homes, sports cars and race horses. Brett Thomas, assistant chief inspector of the asset forfeiture division for the U.S. Marshals Service here, sees the impact of the seizures firsthand, as children and spouses of criminals are told they’ve got to move out and give up illegally gained possessions.
People have screamed, cried, begged and stared in disbelief, Thomas said. Most recently, a woman and three children left a 4,000-square-foot home in northwest Houston to move into a one-bedroom apartment.
“It is one thing to go to jail, but to come out and have nothing and realize what you have put your family through -- it is almost a worse punishment,” Thomas said.
Federal prosecutors nationwide were told this month to use forfeitures more aggressively.
New federal mandate
Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who heads the Department of Justice criminal division, just mandated forfeitures be considered in all criminal cases.
“Seizing and confiscating criminal assets is the single most effective way of disrupting criminal organizations and shutting them down,” said Charles Intriago, a former federal prosecutor.
“It’s about time we made the odds of them hanging on to their ill-gotten gains a lot worse,” said Intriago, now the president of a company -- assetforfeiturewatch.com -- that trains law enforcement officers.
At least 700 items taken from Arce, as well as items seized from other criminals, will be displayed Saturday under security and behind glass at Austin’s Hilton Convention Center hotel. The auction will also be simulcast on the Web at proxibid.com.
Bob Sheehan, owner of Gaston and Sheehan Auctioneers, which is hosting the auction, has seen just about everything.
“I guess there is a little aura to it,” Sheehan said of jewelry previously owned by outlaws.
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle