“The property only received one bid and didn’t meet their reserve price, so the marshals pulled the property,” said Jenny Lynch, spokeswoman for Bid4Assets, the Silver Spring-based company used by the U.S. Marshals Service to sell property acquired in criminal prosecutions.
This time around, Lynch said, the marshals expect a better response.
The minimum bid for the house is $230,000, though the D.C. Office of Tax Revenue values it at more than $460,000.
Online bidding will be conducted from 8 a.m. Monday to 2 p.m. March 19 on www.bid4assets.com, which requires a pre-bid deposit of $23,500.
The three-bedroom, 1 1/2-bathroom row house at 714 Madison St. NW was seized after the co-owner, Maria Cedillos, was convicted of a felony charge of drug trafficking in 2005. The government claimed the property was purchased from cocaine profits.
Cedillos and her sister, Ana, bought the house for $300,000 in 2004. 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 search warrant in April 2005 and discovered 14 grams of cocaine, documents said.
The profits of the sale will go toward the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Program fund.
This is the second piece of real estate to be auctioned by the Marshals Service in the District. The first, a duplex in Hillcrest in Southeast, sold for $245,000 in 2005 after receiving 24 bids, according to Lynch.
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