Drug Cartel Victims’ Families Swamp Courts to Claim Seized Cash

At first, a North Dakota judge’s ruling that a drug cartel should pay $4.6 billion to relatives of nine Americans murdered in Mexico looked largely symbolic.

But lawyers representing the victims’ families have adopted an unusual and exhaustive strategy to collect from the Juarez cartel since the decision two years ago.

They’ve blanketed US district courts with more than 1,200 claims against cash and assets US agents have seized from drug dealers and others with suspected ties to the Mexican traffickers.

The barrage of claims, which has not been previously reported, targets seizures ranging from $1,779 confiscated at the Arizona ...