Americans for Forfeiture Reform reports: OIG releases and audit of DEA adoptive seizure process and equitable sharing requests
- Of instances involving federal adoption of assets seized, 65% of reported samples required DEA headquarter approval to adopt the seizure because the instance lacked all of the following criteria:
- the seizure was based on a federal or state judicial seizure warrant;
- an arrest was made for a felony violation of the Controlled Substances Act or an equivalent state felony charge that would be a felony if pursued under federal law; and/or
- drugs or other contraband associated with a federal felony drug offense were also confiscated at the time of seizure.
- The OIG report notes “for the period of October 1, 2000, through September 30, 2011, the DEA and other federal agencies processed over 150,644 seized assets valued at about $9.2 billion of which $5.5 billion (60 percent) originated from seizures processed by the DEA and $3.7 billion (40 percent) originated from seizures processed by other federal agencies.†[Another $522 million in DEA seizured assets was noted but omitted from analysis for a lack of equitable sharing requests.]
That’s right. In 65% of DEA asset seizure cases, there was no warrant, there was no felony arrest, and there were no drugs seized. Just stuff the DEA wanted to take.
Pete,
You might note that these 65% of adopted forfeitures are likely adopted for one of two reasons: either the federal kickback is greater than the amount the police can keep under state law, or it is more difficult legally to forfeit the property under state law (Many states have constitutions that have relatively robust protections for property rights for example).
Eapen Thampy
Americans for Forfeiture Reform
Here’s an idea for a ballot question. Require the state government to impound twice the value of anything that a local police department gets from the feds this way from its budget.
AMERICA……Land of the free and home of the brave ??
America,,,home of the imprisoned and land of the broke.
America…. Land of the sheep, home of the enslaved.
Well, if you look at the rate at which they’re stealing and factor in the rate at which our economy is tanking… I gotta figure they’re just gonna run out of stuff to steal before too long… although I suppose at that point they’ll just turn on one another.
The punishment for an alleged drug crime is being meted out by the DEA itself through its seizures of the private property of its victims.
There is no accusatorial foundation for the property seizures other than the DEA itself. The DEA is functioning as the prosecutor, judge, and jury in awarding itself assets it has seized.
Not only does the DEA have a license to lie, they have a license to steal. That such a government agency should be allowed such extralegal privileges speaks volumes.
Famed constitutional scholar Leonard W. Levy summed it up:
American law enforcement is no longer interested in protecting or serving their communities.
Now, they just want money. They only pursue crimes which lead to money, or asset forfeiture. Rape, murder, street robberies, etc. are no longer of interest to the police because there’s no money in solving those crimes. The closure rate of violent crimes in the 1940’s and 1950’s was above 60 percent. Now it is below 40 percent, but our prisons are filled to capacity with non-violent offenders. The police don’t go after violent criminals because they are too busy taking the assets/money of non-violent drug users. The police are much safer by avoiding violent criminals, and their arrest statistics look robust so their budgets keep going up.
Almost like that was the plan all along. Who would come up with an idea which ultimately harmed the community and corrupted the police?
Protect & Serve (Themselves!)
Yeah, the Kops are all about revenue generation here in the islands. Flying around all day harassing peaceful MMJ growers and setting up seatbelt/cellphone stings by the side of the road (one kop hides on the hill 500yards ahead so he can see in your vehicle).
I heard they can get their entire months quota to keep their gangster car funding in one afternoon of this. When did they stop riding in state issued police cars!?
Meanwhile, methhead home burglaries/invasions and car thefts TRIPLED in Aug. go figure?! And police response times for ANY call can be as long as two hours.
That’s why i stay heavily armed and very distrustful of the Kops. Very sad it’s like that, my friends dad was a lieutenant and was a nice guy, but he was also ‘cops first’ instead of ‘citizens first’.
http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Sheriff-Cicero-man-was-growing-500-000-worth-of/T4e_b7lIA0W8nqbEqlqJ_g.cspx Attached money figure for medicine seized. Prepare for jury nullification. This same media likes to trumpet about bath salts. signed: not excited to be on the same planet with this forfeiture kingpin sheriff!
Ever wonder why the DEA don’t deploy most of their agents to places like Mexico or Afghanistan? Because they are gutless and have close economic ties to the cartels and the Taliban. We can prove they have a partnership with the Taliban if we can prove a few thousand DEA agents aren’t in Afghanistan eradicating the Kush, Hash and Heroin fields . . . if we can prove less than one DEA agent gets killed every week in Afghanistan or Mexico, then we can prove they are close allies who do secret meetings with each other -assuring that dope will flourish to give the DEA power and wealth and the Terrorists a means of fighting and waging Jihad and terrorist attacks . . . we have known since day one that the DEA are the ones who helped organize the attack on our ambassador in Libya -how can we prove this: Did drug money pay for the training, vehicles, men and equipment who did the bombing and sodomizing –why didn’t the DEA send a few thousand agents to Libya and Lebanon and Nigeria and Guinea-Bissau before this time? We must logically assume it was the DEA who knew first hand about a 9/11 happening since they allowed European drug money (sold by Muslim dealers with extremist ties) to be funneled to the U.S. for over a year. If we can prove more than a few DEA agents are spending their time and wasting our taxes eradicating medical pot, then we can prove they are turning a blind eye to all the dope in Africa, Asia and Europe, which mostly comes from the Islamic world or sold by Islamic terrorists . . . why are not enough DEA agents dying for dope like they should be? Why are more non-drug users and non-cartel workers dying for dope in Mexico than the DEA and American cop? Why are more U.S. soldiers dieing for dope in the Middle East than the American cop or DEA is in America or Mexico or Afghanistan . . . I’m saddened that not enough DEA agents have the guts to get killed for drugs –but God forbid they don’t allow our troops to die for drugs. You cannot spell Al Qaeda without the DEA in its spelling . . . don’t Arabic and Pashto Muslims read and write from right to left: DEA is Al Qaeda. The Terrorists realized that they needed Americans who will throw away democracy and freedoms to make her economically and politically weaker, therefore they infiltrated the DEA and promised the DEA jobs, money and power if the DEA keep American hemp illegal (bad for our economy and war effort) and kept drugs on the black market for terrorists to use -for American gangs and cartels to rip away our nation from the inside -slowly -until the day comes when Sharia law goes into affect right under our noses –slowly –a few generations from now . . . more wars with the Middle East –more of us being too tired and economically weary from policy and war and losing our freedoms –slowly . . . just read the DOD report on forcing our troops in the Stan to submit to Muslim mores and ethics (yet they invaded us and we keep more of their children from being sodomized than anyone else in the war). . . like not eating with your left hand -not propping your feet up on a table or ottoman . . . not eating food in the chow hall when Afghan soldiers/police are in there during the Islamic holidays. I had to submit to Sharia Law in Iraq. The war on drugs takes away a few freedoms and kills Americans for wars far from home so they won’t be fighting the Feds here for our national survival –the soldiers get slowly brainwashed by policy and not educated on Americanism –the real Melting Pot . . . what new freedoms will federal agencies start taking away from us. Too many Washington Leaders practice the Muslim Faith -without even knowing it -if I’m wrong, then we can prove 9/11 was a myth -we can prove no one has ever been busted for pot or coke -we can prove bloodshed in Mexico (which weakens our borders) isn’t happening . . . explain how Al Qaeda is the number one backer of the Syrian freedom fighters, as they were in Libya. Or is all of this a coincidence?