{"id":9469,"date":"2024-11-24T11:26:16","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T18:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=9469"},"modified":"2024-11-24T11:31:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T18:31:48","slug":"justice-department-orders-random-dea-searches-stopped-at-airports-after-anf-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2024\/11\/24\/justice-department-orders-random-dea-searches-stopped-at-airports-after-anf-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Department Orders Random DEA Searches Stopped at Airports After ANF Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The government is just stealing from people with no due process of law though Civil Asset Forfeiture, leaving you to sue them to return the money if at all (and the shameless thieves usually offer to return half if you promise not to sue them knowing an attorney will eat up that money). Normally we hear about police or sheriff departments around the country doing this, with one even raiding armored cars for proceeds from marijuana dispensaries<\/a> trying to use the federal government to launder the funds because it was federally illegal though locally legal. But in that case after a lawsuit the feds returned the money and the sheriff’s department backed off. But one of the worst cases was a military veteran carrying a large amount of cash to purchase a vehicle who when pulled over admitted having the cash when questioned, for which they took it from him<\/a>. So beware carrying large amounts of cash and telling law enforcement about it if asked. You are required to provide drivers license and proof of insurance, but you don’t have to answer questions as you have the right to remain silent or consult with an attorney. And you can usually tell by the initial questions what kind of law enforcement officer you’re dealing with, as most are honorable and not being thieves, but with DEI and defund the police campaigns that is probably changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.atlantanewsfirst.com\/2024\/11\/21\/justice-department-orders-all-consensual-searches-stopped-airports-after-anf-report\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
Award-winning In Plane Sight series uncovered how drug agents can seize cash at airport departure gates.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

By Tim Darnell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – The U.S. Department of Justice <\/a>(DOJ) has ordered all consensual searches by drug enforcement agents conducted at the nation\u2019s airports stopped after a series of Atlanta News First investigations <\/strong><\/em><\/a>uncovered how the agents often search innocent passengers at airport gates, looking for cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, the department made public a Nov. 12, 2024, directive from the deputy attorney general to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that it suspend \u201call consensual encounters at mass transportation facilities unless they are either connected to an ongoing, predicated investigation involving one or more identified targets or criminal networks or approved by the DEA Administrator based on exigent circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The management advisory memorandum<\/a> was issued by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memo specifically mentioned the case of an airline passenger interviewed <\/a>by Atlanta News First Chief Investigator Brendan Keefe<\/a>, author of the Atlanta News First <\/strong><\/a>investigation, In Plane Sight<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. The award-winning series <\/a>uncovered how drug agents have been seizing anything over $5,000 if airline passengers can\u2019t prove \u2014 on the spot \u2014 that their own money didn\u2019t come from drug trafficking. The government seizes the cash when no drugs are found, without arresting the traveler or charging them with a crime, and the DEA gets to keep the money it seizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After witnessing the Atlanta News First series<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the passenger in question – who was departing from Cincinnati and heading to New York, where he lives – refused consent to have his bags searched at the gate. He said he remembered watching Keefe\u2019s series, and this report <\/a>described his encounter with DEA task force officer Nick Nimeskern, a police officer assigned to the unit from the Montgomery, Ohio, Police Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stopped the passenger – who was identified only as David – at the boarding door on Feb. 28, 2024, at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Atlanta<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found, based on its recent evaluation work and a separate, ongoing investigative matter that, during the DEA\u2019s transportation interdiction activities, the DEA was not complying with its own policy on consensual encounters conducted at mass transportation facilities,\u201d the Nov. 12, 2024, memo said. \u201cThis resulted in DEA and DEA Task Force Group personnel creating potentially significant operational and legal risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe OIG further learned that the DEA Task Force Group selected this traveler for the encounter based on information provided by a DEA confidential source, who was an employee of a commercial airline, about travelers who had purchased tickets within 48 hours of the travel,\u201d the memo said. \u201cThe OIG learned that the DEA had been paying this employee a percentage of forfeited cash seized by the DEA office from passengers at the local airport when the seizure resulted from information the employee had provided to the DEA. The employee had received tens of thousands of dollars from the DEA over the past several years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlanta News First Investigates<\/strong><\/a> was first alerted to the encounter by the Institute For Justice<\/a>, who is representing the passenger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff sent a letter<\/a> to the DOJ, asking why the DEA is searching innocent passengers at boarding gates at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport<\/a>. The Democratic senator\u2019s letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland <\/a>and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram <\/a>was sent in direct response to In Plane Sight<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ossoff is asking the DOJ and DEA why it hasn\u2019t implemented all the recommendations made by the DOJ\u2019s Office of Inspector General in 2015<\/a>. The senator also asked for an update on the use and oversight of what the DEA calls, cold consent encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecent reporting suggests that DEA and DEA-authorized agents continue to use cold consent encounters in problematic ways in our nation\u2019s airports,\u201d Ossoff\u2019s letter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Plane Sight<\/strong><\/em><\/a> also revealed passengers selected for what the government calls \u201crandom, consensual encounters\u201d are actually profiled by the drug agents who search Black men far more often than any other group of passengers. The reports analyzed data showing that, for drug agents to find just one passenger with money, they have to publicly search 10 departing passengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of those profiled passengers are left deeply scarred by the process, even when nothing is seized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government is just stealing from people with no due process of law though Civil Asset Forfeiture, leaving you to sue them to return the money if at all (and the shameless thieves usually offer to return half if you promise not to sue them knowing an attorney will eat up that money). Normally we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9469"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9471,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469\/revisions\/9471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}