From Reddit😕“My father’s friend’s son is a DEA agent. They raided a house and came away with this [seized cash]. All I was/could be told.”
A police officer in the discussion offered this explanation when asked “where does seized cash?go”:
Cop here. Short answer is, it depends.
If it’s a serious crime and the drugs and money were evidence, the drugs and money will be retained in evidence for 5-7 years for potential appeals, or longer, depending on the wishes of the prosecution.
If the crime isn’t so serious (as in 2-3 years or less) and the money wasn’t proven to be derived from, or in furtherance to, illicit activity, it will most likely be returned to the owner. (This follows the same asset forfeiture laws as vehicles, houses, boats, clothing, etc. so a separate hearing is usually initiated to test/verify if the money was illicit.)
Each jurisdiction has their own set of rules, regulations, and laws, but generally the drugs and money will either be disposed of (by at least two witnesses) or they will be kept. (Drugs can be used for training or future investigative operations. Money goes back to the parent government, NOT the seizing agency.) There is usually some forms that need to be filled out and approved by the chief of the law enforcement organization and the prosecutor’s office and/or judge.
If the drugs are kept, they are stored in the property/evidence room and only checked out for operations/training – they’re weighed when they leave and weighed again when they come back. If there’s any missing and it wasn’t used in an approved training or operation, it would be your ass. The drugs could be used for K-9 training or controlled burns (how do you think that cops and confidential informants know what marijuana smells like – they, like the dogs, have to have it signed off in their personnel/training records.) We will also use it to do field test training for those that don’t get a lot of exposure to it (probation/parole officers, investigative assistants, confidential informants etc.) Operations is what you suspect – reverse buy/busts or buy/walks.
As I said, money that has been seized (and approved for forfeiture during a hearing) funnels back to the parent government and they disburse it as they see fit. At the Federal level, that is the Department of Justice.
So the way it works is when they execute the search warrants in a case like that, they also include search warrants/civil forfeiture demands for any fruits of the crime and they will seize those as well. In the Madoff case, that was very, very expensive cars, suites, fur coats, shoes, fine artwork etc. At that point, they’ll also have a judge’s order freezing all liquid assets.
After it’s been proven in court that those items were derived from that criminal activity, they are then auctioned off and the proceeds (which is the selling price less any auction/contract fees) are distributed to the victims.
I recall reading something on the case and with all the forfeitures/auctions they were able to repay something like $2 billion out of the $10 billion outstanding – so it’s not everything, but at least it’s something.
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h/t Reddit user?Wacky_Water_Weasel???| ?Image via Imgur
Tiffany Willis is the founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal America. An unapologetic member of the Christian Left, she has spent most of her career actively working with ?the least of these? and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. She’s passionate about their struggles. To stay on top of topics she discusses,?like her?Facebook page,?follow her on Twitter, or?connect with her via LinkedIn. She also has?a?grossly neglected personal blog?and a?literary quotes blog that is a labor of love. Find her somewhere and join the discussion.
