A new report published by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General suggests that the Drug Enforcement Administration has seized billions of dollars in cash from people who it has not charged with crimes.

The report, released in late March, said that since 2007, the DEA has taken over $4 billion in cash from those suspected of involvement with the drug trade.

However, 81 percent of those seizures were conducted administratively and did not lead to any civil or criminal charges, according to The Washington Post. In total, that meant $3.2 billion was seized from people who were not charged.

In many of these thousands of cases, assets like cars, homes and electronics were taken away as well.

As reported by The Post, the seizures were legal, as the law allows authorities to confiscate cash and property from those suspected of criminal activity. – READ MORE