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DEA regularly mines Americans' travel records to seize millions in cash
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of USA Today
Posted: August 14th, 2016
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/10/dea-travel-rec...
Federal drug agents regularly mine Americans travel information to profile people who might be ferrying money for narcotics traffickers - though they almost never use what they learn to make arrests or build criminal cases. Instead, that targeting has helped the Drug Enforcement Administration seize a small fortune in cash. The DEA surveillance is separate from the vast and widely-known anti-terrorism apparatus. DEA units assigned to patrol 15 of the nations busiest airports seized more than $209 million in cash from at least 5,200 people over the past decade They count on this as part of the budget, said Louis Weiss, a former [DEA group] supervisor. Basically, youve got to feed the monster. Federal law gives the government broad powers to seize cash and other assets if agents have evidence that they are linked to crime. That process, commonly known as asset forfeiture, has come under fire ... after complaints that police were using the law as a way to raise money rather than to protect the public or prevent crime. Court records show agents and informants flagged travelers for questioning based on whether they were traveling with one-way tickets, had paid in cash, had listed a non-working phone number on the reservation or had checked luggage. Agents said Zane Young fit that profile when they ... seized $36,000 from his bags. Youngs lawyer, Thomas Baker, said in a court filing that the drug agencys profile was vague, ambiguous, overbroad, and can be manipulated to include just about anyone.
Note: Read about how the DEA stole a young man's life savings without ever charging him with a crime. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on government corruption and the erosion of civil liberties.
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