Searches Because of 'Significant Issues' With Cash Seizures
Story by C.J. Ciaramella • 16h
The Justice Department has ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to suspend most searches of passengers at airports and other mass transit hubs after an independent investigation found DEA task forces weren't documenting searches and weren't properly trained, creating a significant risk of constitutional violations and lawsuits.
The deputy attorney general directed the DEA on November 12 to halt what are known as "consensual encounter" searches at airports—unless they're part of an existing investigation into a criminal network—after seeing the draft of a Justice Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) memorandum that outlined a decade's worth of "significant concerns" about how the DEA uses paid airline informants and loose criteria to flag passengers to search for drugs and cash.
OIG Investigators found that the DEA paid one airline employee tens of thousands of dollars over the past several years in proceeds from cash seized as a result of their tips. However, the vast majority of those airport seizures aren't accompanied by criminal prosecutions. This has led to years of complaints from civil liberties groups that the DEA is abusing civil asset forfeiture—a practice that allows police to seize cash and other property suspected of being connected to criminal activity such as drug trafficking, even if the owner is never arrested or charged with a crime.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/justice-department-orders-dea-to-halt-airport-searches-because-of-significant-issues-with-cash-seizures/ar-AA1uwoQL?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=eaa68641f0af4d2bbf53bf72c5fb39f0&ei=75
