One government agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ), has told another government agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), to stop stealing money from travelers at airports and other transit hubs.
For years now, the DEA has been conducting what the DOJ says are random searches at airports and transportation hubs that essentially amount to civil rights violations. All of this comes after a report issued by the Justice Department’s Inspector General found that the searches were not being properly documented and DEA agents conducting them were not adequately trained. The searches were rife with racial profiling, too.
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Probably the most shocking discovery in this report is that the DEA’s practice of seizing cash from passengers during some of these searches raised a ton of ethical concerns. Agents using an extremely unethical yet quite popular legal process called civil forfeiture stole money from passengers while putting the burden of proof on the passengers to reclaim their property. A burden that, in the vast majority of cases, is nearly impossible to overcome because most people can’t prove their innocence.
If a cop takes your money and says it’s because he suspects you’re going to use it for criminal activity, how do you prove that you’re not going to use it for criminal activity? If you’ve seen the recent (and very awesome) movie on Netflix called Rebel Ridge, you are already familiar with the concept. It’s a horrific system that lets cops steal whatever they want from you with near-complete legal cover.
The Inspector General’s report described an incident that occurred earlier in 2024 wherein a traveler was flagged as suspicious by a DEA officer based on information provided by an airline employee. It turns out that that airline employee was in cahoots with the corrupt DEA agent. The agent would then steal money from the passenger through civil forfeiture and split the money with the airline employee.
