The U.S. marshals are auctioning off a Petworth home after one of its owners was convicted of a felony drug-trafficking charge. Online bidding for the house started Monday and concludes Wednesday at 2 p.m.

As of Monday afternoon, there had been one bid of $235,300 placed on the three-bedroom, 1 1/2 bathroom row house located at 714 Madison St. NW. The D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue values the property at more than $460,000. Similar homes in the neighborhood have sold for as much as $520,000 in the last few months.

The property, owned by sisters Ana and Maria Cedillos, was seized after Maria Cedillos was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in December 2005. The government claimed the house was bought with cocaine profits, and that drugs were sold from the property, giving the Justice Department the right to take the house under federal forfeiture laws.

The Cedillos bought the house for $300,000 in 2004. A mortgage company holds liens on the property, which the government would have to pay out of proceeds from the auction. The company was owed $64,560 when the house was seized.

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According to court documents provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Alexandria, Cedillos sold cocaine from 2003 to 2005. The Drug Enforcement Administration obtained a warrant to search Cedillos’ home on Madison Street in April 2005 and discovered fourteen grams of cocaine and over $1,500 in drug money, documents said.

Maria Cedillos was sentenced to six years in prison.

The profits from the property’s sale will go into the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Program fund. “Any parties involved in the conviction and seizure will share in the profits when the property is sold,” U.S. marshals spokeswoman Nikki Credic said.

It appears that the profits will be split by Virginia agencies. The case agents came from the DEA based in Northern Virginia, and the case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia.

The house is being auctioned on www.bid4assets.com. Bid4Assets is a Maryland-based company used by the U.S. Marshals Service to sell property acquired in criminal prosecutions.

This is the second piece of real estate to be auctioned by the Marshals in the District. The first, a duplex in Hillcrest in Southeast, sold for $245,000 in 2005, after receiving 24 bids, according to Bid4Assets spokeswoman Jenny Lynch.