Entries by Sebastian Rucci

Since 2007, the DEA has taken $3.2 billion in cash from people not charged with a crime

The Drug Enforcement Administration takes billions of dollars in cash from people who are never charged with criminal activity, according to a report issued today by the Justice Department’s Inspector General. Since 2007, the report found, the DEA has seized more than $4 billion in cash from people suspected of involvement with the drug trade. […]

Why civil asset forfeiture simply won’t die

By Robert Gebelhoff Assistant editor and Opinions contributor July 25, 2017 at 11:04 a.m. EDT Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the White House in Washington on March 27. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) That Attorney General Jeff Sessions would resurrect a controversial federal program for civil asset forfeiture isn’t surprising. He has long been one of […]

Police seized $10,000 of a couple’s cash. They couldn’t get it back — until they went public.

Tonya Smith referred to June 9 as a “highway robbery.” But the traffic stop by West Virginia state troopers and seizure of thousands of dollars in cash and gift cards was lawful. Under a little-known legal tool called civil forfeiture, the government can permanently take a person’s property if an officer suspects it is connected […]

A former Marine was pulled over for following a truck too closely. Police took nearly $87,000 of his cash.

The Nevada trooper first told Stephen Lara the highway patrol was educating drivers “about violations they may not realize they’re committing,” and that he’d been pulled over for following a tanker truck too closely. Eventually the trooper admitted having an ulterior purpose: stopping the smuggling of illegal drugs, weapons and currency as they crossed the […]