DEA Stole $3.2 Billion In Cash From Innocent People In Only A Decade

By Justin Gardner

A bombshell report from the Inspector General (IG) at the Department of Justice has exposed the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for the colossal thieves they are. According to the report, DEA seized more than $4 billion in cash from people since 2007, but $3.2 billion of the seizures were never connected to any criminal charges. That figure does not even include the seizure of cars and electronics.

This thievery is possible through the insidious practice of civil asset forfeiture (CAF), where law enforcement can seize cash and property on the mere suspicion of being involved in criminal activity. Originally developed in the 1980s to go after organized crime, CAF has mushroomed into a source of revenue for cops across the country – from local to state to federal – in what’s become known as Policing for Profit.

When an innocent person’s cash is stolen by DEA, that person must petition to get it back, meaning the burden of proof (and the burden of time and expense) is on the unlucky victim who never did anything wrong in the first place. In fact, “forfeiture proceedings start from the presumption of guilt.”

It’s a clever scheme, and DEA knows it. The IG found that petitions were filed in only 20 percent of DEA cash seizures. As Reason Magazine points out, the IG report highlights just how arbitrary these seizures can be.

“We found that different task force officers made different decisions in similar situations when deciding whether to seize all of the cash discovered,” the Inspector General wrote. “These differences demonstrate how seizure decisions can appear arbitrary, which should be a concern for the Department, both because of potentially improper conduct and because even the appearance of arbitrary decision-making in asset seizure can fuel public perception that law enforcement is not using this authority legitimately, thereby undermining public confidence in law enforcement.”

The case of a man traveling at an airport with $27,000 is a prime example of how DEA can just take the cash on a whim, without even bothering to pretend it has to do with criminal activity.

When a task force officer explained that the U.S. currency in the bag was going to be seized pending further investigation, the passenger asked whether he could keep some of the currency to travel home. The passenger asserted that all of the currency in the bag was his, and the task force officers allowed him to retain $1,000. This seizure resulted in an administrative forfeiture of $27,000 to the U.S. government, and the DEA explained to the OIG that, other than the events surrounding the seizure, there was no subsequent investigative activity or additional law enforcement benefit.

Reason Magazine sums it up perfectly.

If the DEA task force agents thought that man’s cash was connected to drug activity, why allow him to keep some of it? If they weren’t sure, why take it in the first place? The answer, of course, is there is no logical or legal rationale for this sequence of events.

Indeed, most of the DEA’s cash seizures don’t relate to any criminal investigation, and 82 percent of the cases reviewed by the IG were settled without any judicial review. The DEA focuses on airports, train stations and bus terminals, relying on travel records and a host of confidential informants to target people they believe will have lots of cash.

DEA gives itself wide latitude to pin you as a suspect for detainment and search. Woe to those “traveling to or from a known source city for drug trafficking, purchasing a ticket within 24 hours of travel, purchasing a ticket for a long flight with an immediate return, purchasing a one-way ticket, and traveling without checked luggage.”

The IG concludes that DEA is posing great risks to civil liberties by continuing the practices highlighted in its report.

‘When seizure and administrative forfeitures do not ultimately advance an investigation or prosecution, law enforcement creates the appearance, and risks the reality, that it is more interested in seizing and forfeiting cash than advancing an investigation or prosecution.’

The IG states that “risks to civil liberties are particularly significant when seizures that do not advance or relate to an investigation are conducted without a court-issued seizure warrant, the presence of illicit narcotics, or subsequent judicial involvement prior to administrative forfeiture.”

The threat to civil liberties posed by CAF is being recognized more and more, as states continue to abolish the practice by requiring a criminal conviction before cash and assets can be seized. But the federal government is a primary reason why CAF still runs rampant, through the euphemistically named Equitable Sharing Fund where the stolen loot (amounting to $28 billion over the last decade) is shared by federal and state drug task forces.

These findings fundamentally undercut law enforcement’s claim that civil forfeiture is a vital crime-fighting tool. Americans are already outraged at the Justice Department’s aggressive use of civil forfeiture, which has mushroomed into a multibillion dollar program in the last decade. This report only further confirms what we have been saying all along: Forfeiture laws create perverse financial incentives to seize property without judicial oversight and violate due process.

This report is one more illustration that the only solution to resolving these issues is to end the use of civil forfeiture once and for all. – The Institute for Justice

Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this articlefirst appeared.

http://jahtruth.net/comand.htm

THE
12 COMMANDMENTS
(10+2)

1. YOU shall love, honour, cherish and obey the Lord your God (love, good and truth) with ALL your heart, with ALL your mind, with ALL your soul and with ALL your strength and Him ONLY shall you serve and OBEY, forsaking ALL others.

2. YOU shall NOT create an image or likeness of ANYTHING that is IN HEAVEN, or on earth, or under the sea and YOU shall NOT worship or BUY such things. YOU shall NOTbow down to them or serve them for I the "I AM" your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate (or disobey) Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love (and obey) Me, and KEEP My COMMANDMENTS.
3. Honour your Father in Heaven and KEEP His COMMANDMENTS; LAWS; Statutes; Judgements; Economic Policy; Agricultural Policy and Diet that He gave to YOU and your Mother, the British Nation Israel, His wife (metaphorically), at Mt. Sinai and make Him proud of YOU.

4. YOU shall NOT commit adultery, either physically, individually, or spiritually, nationally or individually but shall be FAITHFUL to God, your word and your spouse, also NOT committing adultery nationally by following the wrong examples of other nations.

5. YOU shall NOT use the Lord's name, unless you are speaking to Him, or about Him, then you will not waste His time or insult Him.

6. Love your neighbour (not physically) as much as, or more than, you love your "Self". Then you will not do wrong, or lie, to anyone - John 15 v 13.
Do NOT desire eagerly, or touch, anything that does not belong to you. It belongs to your neighbour, not you, and YOU must respect HIS property. Your neighbour is the person next to you and the person on the far side of the planet and everyone in between.

7. YOU shall NOT lie, even to your "Self".

8. Remember the Sabbath and KEEP it Holy. It is NOT wrong to do GOOD deeds on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man. Man was not made for the Sabbath.

9. YOU shall NOT steal. Neither shall you make up your own laws to enable you to do so by deceiving people.

10. YOU shall NOT murder - kill illegally.

11. YOU shall love one another as much as I love you and in the same way - spiritually not physically - John 15 v 13. IF you DO this, ALL men will KNOW that you ARE my disciples and are exercising and learning "Self" discipline - Discipleship.

12. Judge no-one, so that you will not be judged, by God, for by whatever judgement you judge another, unjustly, you condemn yourself to the same punishment. Judging is God's job exclusively, as He is always unbiased, impartial, uncorruptible and just. He has given His judgements, in His Law Books given to you at Mt. Sinai, by which He judges those who break His Laws. There are NO other laws on this planet that are LEGAL. God has strictly FORBIDDEN man from making up laws (Deuteronomy 4:2). God's Laws are the same for everyone. God does NOT have separate Laws - one for the rich and another one for the poor.  

H.M. GOVERNMENT
+HEALTH WARNING+
Breaking The 12 (10+2)
COMMANDments
SERIOUSLY damages YOUR healthCopyright © 1995 - JAH - all rights reserved

1984
YOU ARE NEXT
JUST REQUIRES YOUR PIN NUMBER !!!!!!!
DEA
DEADBEATS Enforcement Administration
DEALS, ENRICHMENT, ADDICTION.
DAILY, ENFORCED, mis-administration
the body of people who administer an organization
WHO ARE CORRUPT, LIARS AND DECEIVERS
PACK OF THIEVES, PACK OF WOLVES,
WHO BLEED DRY THE SAP OF EVERYONE
WHO DO NOT CARE,
HAVE NO COMPASSION,
NO MERCY,
NO Empathy,
no love,
no morals,
are lawless,
make up there own rules,
and regulations.
they all work for there father satan,
who also is a totally
CORRUPT, full of lies AND the best DECEIVER,
RUNS AND LEADS THE PACK OF THIEVES, LIKE A PACK OF WOLVES,
WHO BLEED DRY THE SAP OF EVERYONE
WHO DO NOT CARE,
HAVE NO COMPASSION,
NO MERCY,
NO Empathy,
no love,
no morals,
are lawless,
make up there own rules,
and regulations.

DO YOU NOW UNDERSTAND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Deuteronomy 4:2
4:1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the Statutes and unto the Judgments, which I teach you, for to DO [them], that ye may LIVE, and go in and possess the land which the "I AM" God of your fathers giveth you.
4:2 Ye shall not ADD unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the Commandments of the "I AM" your God which I COMMAND you.

4:6 KEEP therefore and DO [them]; for this [is] your Wisdom and your Understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these Statutes, and say, Surely this great nation [is] a wise and understanding people.

5:7 Thou shalt have none other gods before Me.
5:8 Thou shalt not make thee [ANY] graven image, [or] ANY likeness [of ANY thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the waters beneath the earth [neither shalt thou possess them if others make them (ch. 7:26)]:
5:9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the "I AM" thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate [or disobey] Me,
5:10 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love [and obey] Me and KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS.
5:11 Thou shalt not take the name of the "I AM" thy God in vain (use it when not talking to Him, or about Him): for the "I AM" will not hold [him] guiltless that taketh His name in vain [and thus wasteth His time or insulteth Him].
5:12 Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the "I AM" thy God hath commanded thee. [It is NOT wrong to do GOOD deeds on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man. Man was not made for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27 to 3:5).]
5:13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
5:14 But the seventh day (Saturday) [is] the Sabbath of the "I AM" thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
5:15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and [that] the "I AM" thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the "I AM" thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.
5:16 Honour thy Father and thy mother (Israel) and keep The Covenant, as the "I AM" thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the "I AM" thy God giveth thee.
5:17 Thou shalt NOT murder (kill un-Lawfully).
5:18 Neither shalt thou commit adultery [neither personally, nor nationally].
5:19 Neither shalt thou steal [nor make up thine own laws to enable thee to do so by fraud (deceiving people)].
5:20 Neither shalt thou tell lies [not even to thy "Self", neither to, nor] against thy neighbour.
5:21 Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any [thing] that [is] thy neighbour's.
http://jahtruth.net/comand.htm