Gang Of Thieves: DEA Stole $3.2 Billion In Cash From Innocent People In Only A Decade

Source: ActivistPost.com
Justin Gardner
March 30, 2017

A bombshell report from the Inspector General (IG) at the Department of Justice has exposed the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for the colossal thieves they are. According to the report, DEA seized more than $4 billion in cash from people since 2007, but $3.2 billion of the seizures were never connected to any criminal charges. That figure does not even include the seizure of cars and electronics.

This thievery is possible through the insidious practice of civil asset forfeiture (CAF), where law enforcement can seize cash and property on the mere suspicion of being involved in criminal activity. Originally developed in the 1980s to go after organized crime, CAF has mushroomed into a source of revenue for cops across the country – from local to state to federal – in what’s become known as Policing for Profit.

When an innocent person’s cash is stolen by DEA, that person must petition to get it back, meaning the burden of proof (and the burden of time and expense) is on the unlucky victim who never did anything wrong in the first place. In fact, “forfeiture proceedings start from the presumption of guilt.”

It’s a clever scheme, and DEA knows it. The IG found that petitions were filed in only 20 percent of DEA cash seizures. As Reason Magazine points out, the IG report highlights just how arbitrary these seizures can be.

“We found that different task force officers made different decisions in similar situations when deciding whether to seize all of the cash discovered,” the Inspector General wrote. “These differences demonstrate how seizure decisions can appear arbitrary, which should be a concern for the Department, both because of potentially improper conduct and because even the appearance of arbitrary decision-making in asset seizure can fuel public perception that law enforcement is not using this authority legitimately, thereby undermining public confidence in law enforcement.”

The case of a man traveling at an airport with $27,000 is a prime example of how DEA can just take the cash on a whim, without even bothering to pretend it has to do with criminal activity.

When a task force officer explained that the U.S. currency in the bag was going to be seized pending further investigation, the passenger asked whether he could keep some of the currency to travel home. The passenger asserted that all of the currency in the bag was his, and the task force officers allowed him to retain $1,000. This seizure resulted in an administrative forfeiture of $27,000 to the U.S. government, and the DEA explained to the OIG that, other than the events surrounding the seizure, there was no subsequent investigative activity or additional law enforcement benefit.

Reason Magazine sums it up perfectly.

If the DEA task force agents thought that man’s cash was connected to drug activity, why allow him to keep some of it? If they weren’t sure, why take it in the first place? The answer, of course, is there is no logical or legal rationale for this sequence of events.

Indeed, most of the DEA’s cash seizures don’t relate to any criminal investigation, and 82 percent of the cases reviewed by the IG were settled without any judicial review. The DEA focuses on airports, train stations and bus terminals, relying on travel records and a host of confidential informants to target people they believe will have lots of cash.

DEA gives itself wide latitude to pin you as a suspect for detainment and search. Woe to those “traveling to or from a known source city for drug trafficking, purchasing a ticket within 24 hours of travel, purchasing a ticket for a long flight with an immediate return, purchasing a one-way ticket, and traveling without checked luggage.”

The IG concludes that DEA is posing great risks to civil liberties by continuing the practices highlighted in its report.

‘When seizure and administrative forfeitures do not ultimately advance an investigation or prosecution, law enforcement creates the appearance, and risks the reality, that it is more interested in seizing and forfeiting cash than advancing an investigation or prosecution.’

The IG states that “risks to civil liberties are particularly significant when seizures that do not advance or relate to an investigation are conducted without a court-issued seizure warrant, the presence of illicit narcotics, or subsequent judicial involvement prior to administrative forfeiture.”

The threat to civil liberties posed by CAF is being recognized more and more, as states continue to abolish the practice by requiring a criminal conviction before cash and assets can be seized. But the federal government is a primary reason why CAF still runs rampant, through the euphemistically named Equitable Sharing Fund where the stolen loot (amounting to $28 billion over the last decade) is shared by federal and state drug task forces.

These findings fundamentally undercut law enforcement’s claim that civil forfeiture is a vital crime-fighting tool. Americans are already outraged at the Justice Department’s aggressive use of civil forfeiture, which has mushroomed into a multibillion dollar program in the last decade. This report only further confirms what we have been saying all along: Forfeiture laws create perverse financial incentives to seize property without judicial oversight and violate due process.

This report is one more illustration that the only solution to resolving these issues is to end the use of civil forfeiture once and for all. – The Institute for Justice

Read More At: ActivistPost.com

Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.

Collusion: DEA bans plant medicines, then Big Pharma patents them for profits

Source: NaturalNews.com
Vicki Batts
December 12, 2016

Is the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) really looking out for anyone’s best interests with their latest stand on natural, medicinal plants like cannabis and kratom? Most would tend to disagree with them, just on principal. But a deeper look into the matter reveals that their intent may be far more sinister than they want us to believe.

While the DEA consistently maintains that these plants work against the greater good, there are clearly a lot of questions about the agency’s integrity – especially when Big Pharma is involved.

Marijuana and THC – a well-known cannabinoid compound – are both illegal. And yet, as The Free Thought Project pointed out back in September, Big Pharma companies mass-produce and sell synthetic THC formulations, such as Marinol. Marinol is the brand name for dronabinol – the new name that the Big Pharma executives give to THC after it’s been synthesized in a lab. Marinol’s own website notes that THC is a naturally occurring compound found in cannabis. However, as Paul Armentano – the senior policy analyst for the marijuana legislation reform group NORML – notes, Marinol lacks many of the natural therapeutic compounds that are present in the cannabis plant. And because Marinol’s sole active ingredient is synthetic THC, and it’s taken orally, the psychoactive effects tend to be much stronger (and even problematic for some) compared to traditional cannabis. CBD, another beneficial compound, tends to help counteract the psychoactive effects of THC, and without it, you’re in for a whole different kind of ride.

Regardless of how one feels about Marinol and the fact that it offers only limited relief to patients in comparison to the plant it’s modeled after, it is exceedingly hypocritical of the FDA to approve of it while the DEA continues to prosecute marijuana to the fullest extent. It’s not just being blind to the facts or refusing to believe a plant could be medicinal; its outright sabotage at this point. The federal government has literally allowed Big Pharma to create medicine derived from the plant, and then made the plant itself illegal. It is simply mind-boggling how they can rationalize and justify such despicable behavior.

The DEA’s recent statement on kratom underlines the extreme lengths to which they will go to continue to assert that they are in the right, even if only to themselves. The agency filed a notice of intent declaring that they would “temporarily schedule the opioids mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, which are the main active constituents of the plant kratom, into schedule I pursuant to the temporary scheduling provisions of the Controlled Substances Act.” The notice then explained, “This action is based on a finding by the Administrator that the placement of these opioids into schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act is necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety.”

As is typical of bureaucratic agencies, the notice of intent continued in a similar fashion with its convoluted explanation.

And, of course, three synthetic opioids have been synthesized from the kratom plant, namely MGM-9, MGM-15 and MGM-16. Unsurprisingly, these three synthetics were developed from the kratom alkaloids, Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine – you know, the ones named by the DEA as an “imminent hazard to public safety.”

If these compounds are so dangerous, why on earth would Big Pharma be synthesizing them to make medicine? It just doesn’t seem to add up, but the federal agency continues to go along with their story of supposed danger to society, hoping we’ll all fall for it. It really tells you all you need to know about the DEA and their relationship with Big Pharma though, doesn’t it?

Read More At: NaturalNews.com

Sources:

AnonHQ.com

TheFreeThoughtProject.com

NORML.org

DEA claims cannabis holds no medicinal value even as the federal government owns the PATENT on its use as a medicine

Source: NaturalNews.com
L.J.Devon
September 6, 2016

For decades, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), of the herb cannabis sativa, has been at the top of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) hit list. This targeted plant and its natural properties continue to be classified as a schedule one drug on the DEA’s senseless drug scheduling system. Cannabis is listed alongside meth and LSD for having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” The DEA is adamant about controlling cannabis, even at a time when state governments are decriminalizing it altogether and allowing for its use in medical treatments.

DEA refuses to admit that cannabis has medicinal value, despite widespread evidence to the contrary

In August 2016, the DEA was expected to reclassify cannabis or remove it from their hit list altogether; however, when decision time arrived, the DEA refused to remove cannabis from its highly schedule one drug status. Even though cannabis has become a vital part of cancer treatments and an effective treatment for seizures, anxiety, and glaucoma, the DEA stated that “science doesn’t support” cannabis as useful for any medical purposes.

Hypocritically, the federal government itself has filed a patent claiming that cannabis has useful medical purposes, including powerful “antioxidant properties.” The patent, filed in 1999 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, admits that cannabis is useful “in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.”

Government patents cannabis, admitting its powerful antioxidant properties

The 1999 cannabis patent, (code 6,630,507) was a government confession that cannabis wasn’t some brain damaging chemical, as it had been depicted through decades of brainwashing. In fact, the patent admitted that cannabis was a “neuroprotectant,” capable of reversing neurological damage. The patent confessed that cannabis actually reversed “neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”

With this patented knowledge coming out in the open in 2003, the DEA no longer had any justification to continue its war on cannabis and its war on the people who reap benefits from this natural medicine. But even seventeen years after the government admitted cannabis is a useful medicine, the DEA refuses to reclassify the plant as having multiple medical uses.

To reschedule cannabis, the government would have to give up control and admit they were wrong all along. For this rescheduling of cannabis to come about, the DEA would literally be declaring that all the lives they ruined, all the people shot and imprisoned, was all in vain. It’s hard to imagine the DEA laying down their pride unless the entire organization was shut down and/or given new priorities by a future president.

Science and medicine is rigged: don’t believe the official story

This decades-long censorship and control over one of nature’s fine, healing plants is a prime example of how everyone is being systematically lied to, top down, throughout many generations on what medicine and science is. This control over cannabis should wake everyone up to the fact that science and medicine is rigged, that knowledge on a multitude of natural healing substances is being suppressed. Americans should free themselves from this dictatorship of science and medicine by rejecting the synthetic chemicals they are told to breathe, inject, and swallow.

Don’t believe the official story. For optimal health, Americans should seek out the natural foods and medicines that work in harmony with the human body. This includes cannabidiols and other powerful antioxidants such as lutein, lycopen, betacarotene, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin E, selenium, and the list goes on.

Clean, effective science and medicine already exists freely in nature, without permission, without a prescription. There are dark reasons why cannabis is controlled the way it is today and this harsh reality serves as a reminder that the world is being lied to at the highest levels by a rigged, powerful system dominated by psychopaths who seek to control the truth and turn people against people in an intricate system of corruption and compliance.

Read More At: NaturalNews.com

Sources include:
TheAntiMedia.org
GreenRushDaily.com
Google.com
MedlinePlus.gov

DEA Caught Spying on Innocent Travelers to Steal Hundreds of Millions — And It’s 100% “Legal”

Source: FreeThoughtProject.com
Claire Bernish
August 11, 2016

An intensely troubling report proves the DEA pilfers millions in cash from travelers with little, if any, evidence they committed even minor crimes — and virtually never return any of the money, even if charges are never levied.

Worse, simply purchasing a one-way ticket — or even flying to California — constitutes sufficient reason for the DEA to target someone for a potential cash seizure.

“We want the cash,” George Hood, a now-retired agent who supervised a drug task force assigned to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, arrogantly boasted of supposed attempts to bring down cartels via their wallets. “Good agents chase cash.”

USA Today studied the DEA’s airport operations, and though information was difficult to obtain — due, in large part, to the rarity cash seizures led to arrests or even detainments by agents — it’s clear the agency has reaped an astonishing profit by regularly mining the travel records of millions of people.

As USA Today wrote of the cash-grabbing operation:

It is a lucrative endeavor, and one that remains largely unknown outside the drug agency. DEA agents assigned to patrol 15 of the nation’s busiest airports seized more than $209 million in cash from at least 5,200 people over the past decade after concluding the money was linked to drug trafficking, according to Justice Department records. Most of the money was passed onto local police departments that lend officers to assist the drug agency.

Those departments and the agency “count on this as part of the budget,” explained Louis Weiss, a former agent supervising the group assigned to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. “Basically, you’ve got to feed the monster.”

Agents frequently receive tips about putatively suspicious itineraries or travel patterns — paying in cash, purchasing a one-way ticket, or even having checked luggage — but cannot use such tips alone to detain passengers or search their belongings. After being alerted, agents use the information to question travelers and ask to search their bags.

Most often, agents seize large sums of cash — “sometimes totaling $50,000 or more, stuffed into suitcases or socks” — leaving a receipt in its place without ever arresting, detaining, or charging individuals with any crime.

Totals seized by the DEA vary widely by location: in Los Angeles, the total through mid-2015 topped $52.1 million; in Cincinnati, $18,047 — but that isn’t accidental. Destinations in California were flagged for connections to marijuana and narcotics trafficking.

Exactly how the DEA procures Americans’ travel records remains uncertain, as is the scope of the agency’s snooping — but USA Today spoke with several agents on condition of anonymity who made clear the cash-filching operation is extensive.

However unethical it might be to plunder money from wholly innocent people, under federal asset forfeiture law, the practice is perfectly legal. Any law enforcement agency has broad powers to seize cash and property from anyone if those items are suspected to be somehow related to a crime — but the hotly contentious program does not require any proof a crime has been committed or that the subject has been involved in criminal activity.

“Going after someone’s property has nothing to do with protecting them and it has everything to do with going after the money,” Renée Flaherty, attorney with the asset forfeiture-specializing Institute for Justice, aptly noted for USA Today.

Asset forfeiture has spurned so much controversy, the Department of Justice halted the program in late December 2015 — but the respite for the American public didn’t last long. Just three months later, the DOJ reinstated its highly lucrative property plundering, because revenue — from the government’s standpoint, what better way exists to rob the public blind with veritable impunity.

“To put it simply,” USA Today observed in 2013, law enforcement is “developing an addiction to drug money.”

Besides suspect travel plans, agents also use drug-sniffing K-9s to detect drugs in travelers bags as a pretext for searches, which could then lead to a lucrative seizure — a distressing fact, given a study seven years ago found cocaine residue on 90 percent of U.S. dollars. Thus, nearly anyone traveling with cash in their luggage — particularly in large amounts — could easily tip off a canine investigator.

According to five current and former agents who spoke with USA Today, the DEA has been able to cultivate a sweeping network of informants trained to scrutinize itineraries and tip off the agency — and most receive what amounts to kickbacks for their efforts in the form of a percentage of the haul. Indeed the web of informants is so extensive, “agents have been able to profile passengers traveling on most major airlines, including American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, United and others.”

Those airlines, however — acting with ethical integrity clearly devoid in government agencies — for the most part, remain reluctant to cooperate with the DEA’s efforts and would not hand over passenger information.

“They really did not want to be associated with subjecting their passengers to government scrutiny because of privacy issues,” Weiss explained. “They discouraged their employees from assisting us.”

Agents also told the news outlet in many cases, grounds even to arrest supposed couriers were hazy at best, and upon release would use the incident to sniff out more extensive trafficking involvement. But almost none of the encounters ever led to arrests or charges directly stemming from the DEA’s search and seizure operations.

“Of 87 cases USA Today identified in which the DEA seized cash after flagging a suspicious itinerary, only two resulted in the alleged courier being charged with a crime,” the outlet reported. “One involved a woman who was already a target of a federal money-laundering investigation; another alleged courier was arrested a month later on an apparently unrelated drug charge.”

Without arrests or charges — without crime — attached to almost any of the DEA’s cash grabs, how the program remains legal is anyone’s guess. Agents admitted that despite fairly significant busts of actual drugs, the DEA’s mission primarily rests in seizing cash.

And as the horribly failed and altogether farcically-premised drug war labors forward — reaffirmed by today’s announcement from the DEA it has no intent to reschedule cannabis from its position alongside cocaine and heroin as a dangerous substance with no medical value — Americans can expect the government’s legalized robbery scam to continue unabated.

Read More At: FreeThoughtProject.com