When any law enforcement officer discovers any person in the act of transporting in violation of law beer or intoxicating liquors in any wagon, buggy, automobile, watercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle, the officer shall seize all beer or intoxicating liquors found therein being transported contrary to law. Whenever beer or intoxicating liquors transported or possessed illegally are seized by a law enforcement officer, the officer shall take possession of the vehicle and team, or automobile, boat, watercraft, aircraft, or any other conveyance, and shall arrest any person in charge thereof. The law enforcement officer shall at once proceed against the person arrested under Chapters 4301. and 4303. of the Revised Code, in any court having jurisdiction of offenses under those chapters, but the vehicle or conveyance shall be returned to the owner upon execution by the owner of a valid bond with sufficient sureties, in a sum equal to the value of the property, which bond shall be approved by the law enforcement officer and shall be conditioned to return said property to the custody of said officer on the day of trial to abide by the judgment of the court. The court, upon conviction of the person so arrested, shall order the beer or intoxicating liquor that was not illegally manufactured to be forfeited to the state and disposed of under sections 2981.11 to 2981.13 of the Revised Code, and unless good cause to the contrary is shown by the owner, shall order a sale at public auction of the property seized, and the officer making the sale, after deducting the expenses of keeping the property, the fee for the seizure, and the cost of the sale, shall pay all liens, according to their priorities, which are established, by intervention or otherwise at said hearing or in other proceeding brought for said purpose, as being bona fide and as having been created without the lienor having any notice that the carrying vehicle was being used or was to be used for illegal transportation of beer or intoxicating liquor, and shall distribute the balance as money arising from fines and forfeited bonds under such chapters is distributed. The court, upon conviction of the person so arrested, shall order the beer or intoxicating liquor that was illegally manufactured to be destroyed.

All liens against property sold under this section shall be transferred from the property to the proceeds of the sale of the property. If no claimant is found for the team, vehicle, watercraft, aircraft, automobile, or other conveyance, the taking of the same, with its description, shall be advertised in some newspaper published in the city or county where taken, or if there is no newspaper published in such city or county, in a newspaper having circulation in the county, once a week for four weeks and by handbills posted in three public places near the place of seizure, and if no claimant appears within ten days after the last publication of the advertisement, the property shall be sold and the proceeds after deducting the expense and costs shall be distributed as if there were a claimant for said vehicle or conveyance.

Effective Date: 10-29-1995; 07-01-2007 .