By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A deputy U.S. attorney general has halted the Drug Enforcement Administration’s drug-forfeiture program that targeted unsuspecting airline passengers for illegal cash in their bags.
The Inspector General of the Department of Justice, Mr. Michael Horowitz, announced the suspension of the DEA program by the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, in a new report released on Thursday that raised serious concerns about the program and questions whether other searches were conducted legally.
“The DEA was not following its agreed-upon guidelines for mass transit facilities, causing employees to create significant operational and legal risks,” Horowitz wrote in a memo to Monaco and Anne Milgram, DEA administrator.
Asset confiscation has long been a controversial program that opponents say violates people’s constitutional rights to illegal searches and seizures.
It allows the police to search and seize property from people who may be suspected of a crime, even if they have never been charged with a crime. The money from these forfeitures is often split between the lawmakers involved in the investigation, creating what some argue is a bad financial incentive for federal, state and local police departments.
The property owner can only recover the property if they can prove the expropriation is not connected to any criminal activity, creating an expensive and time-consuming legal burden.
Horowitz’s statement on Thursday said his office’s ongoing investigation had uncovered several troubling revelations.
In one such example, the DEA office treated an airline employee as a confidential agent who notified agents any time a passenger purchased an airline ticket within 48 hours of departure.
Agents may use last minute shopping as an excuse to approach those passengers and try to get the passengers to agree to let them search their bags.
In cases where agents sought and seized money, the private sector received a cut of the proceeds from the seizure, the statement said.
One such search was caught on video by the driver, and later made public by the Institute for Justice, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting people’s constitutional rights.
In the video, a DEA agent can be seen searching the bag of a driver identified only as “David C,” who fell ill on a business trip and was forced to rebook from Cincinnati, Ohio, to New York. York for some time at the last minute.
“Where’s your bag?” a DEA agent can be seen questioning him on camera. “I’m the DEA. I’m the government.”
In 2020, during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office, the Institute for Justice sued the DEA and the Transportation Security Administration, alleging that these agencies were taking money from illegal travelers without reason.
That case is still pending. The DEA and TSA had no comment Thursday.
Dan Alban, senior counsel with the Institute for Justice and lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, said he believes the report “confirms many of the allegations” in the lawsuit.
While he said the suspension of the program was a welcome development, he warned that without a complete change in the law, the decision of the Deputy Attorney General of Monaco could be withdrawn.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Matthew Lewis)