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DEA has seized more than $3B over 10 years from people never charged with crimes, report says

A review of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s use of civil forfeiture has found that most of the cash it seizes from drug suspects is taken through administrative procedures, rather than through the filing of civil or criminal charges.

The DEA has seized more than $4 billion in cash over a 10-year period, and $3.2 billion of that amount was in cases without any charges, the Washington Post reports.

The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General conducted the review and wrote a report (PDF). When administrative forfeitures don’t advance an investigation or prosecution, the report said, “law enforcement creates the appearance, and risks the reality, that it is more interested in seizing and forfeiting cash” than in advancing a criminal case.

Most seizures of cash and assets are not contested. In many cases, the article said, the amount seized is so small that it’s not worth hiring a lawyer to try to get the property returned.

The inspector general reviewed a sample of 100 DEA cash seizures that were conducted without a warrant and without the presence of narcotics. According to the report, 85 of the seizures happened at transportation facilities such as airports and bus terminals. All but six of those seizures were based on observations of officers without pre-existing intelligence about a specific drug crime.

“This is particularly relevant,” the report said, given “potential risks to civil liberties associated with cold consent encounters that occur during transportation interdiction operations.”

Only 44 of the 100 sampled cases had advanced or related to criminal investigations, the report said.

The DOJ asserted that the report undercounted the number of the cases advancing investigations and prosecutions, but the inspector general stood by the findings.