The Department of Justice is cracking down on the Drug Enforcement Administration's controversial practice of "consensual encounters" at airports after multiple complaints.
The practice includes DEA special agents or task force officers approaching individuals at airports and then asking for consent to search the individual’s belongings.
The DOJ's move comes four years after Scripps News Tampa Investigative Reporter Kylie McGivern highlighted the practice of civil asset forfeiture at airports by the DEA.
Civil asset forfeiture allows federal agencies to seize cash and other property suspected of being involved in a crime, even if charges are never filed against the owner.
The Institute for Justice called the move a "pretty significant change."
"It means that air travelers across the United States, at all domestic airports, will not be subjected to these 'consensual encounter' interrogations by DEA," said Dan Alban, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice.
"It's a predatory practice by DEA, and the reason DEA engages in this airport interdiction behavior is because the proceeds from everything they seize go into the DOJ asset forfeiture fund," Alban said. "A fund that can only be spent on federal law enforcement like DEA."
Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the government over civil asset forfeiture and the taking of large amounts of cash from people who were not committing a crime.
One of those lawsuits was filed by Stacy Jones of Tampa. Jones told her story in 2020 of having $40,000+ in cash seized by federal agents. Jones and her husband were questioned, their money seized and then released to fly home without it.
“No charges, no evidence, no nothing. It was just seized," Jones said. “I knew that I hadn’t done anything, but it was like — guilty until proven innocent.”
There is no limit to the amount of cash a passenger can carry on a flight within the U.S.
Six months after the incident in 2020, Jones received her money back, but the DEA did not explain what had happened.
"DEA does not have to ever prove in court that your money is connected to criminal activity," Alban said. "Instead, they can process most seizures through what is called the administrative forfeiture process, which is decided by DEA itself. So, the vast majority of these seizures never see the inside of a courtroom."
Alban said a report from the Office of Inspector Generalis what prompted the pause on this practice.
“That report shed light on the abusive behaviors by DEA agents in airports that are treating these ‘consensual encounters’ as mandatory, as something people cannot choose not to participate in, they’re targeting people sometimes based on race, sometimes based on completely innocuous things, such as last minute bookings of flights or booking a one-way ticket or travel between certain major hubs, all of which are things completely innocent travelers do every day."
The report mentioned a video that a passenger recorded and gave the Scripps News Tampa permission to show.
Institute for Justice Video: DEA Caught Red-Handed: Airport Intimidation
The OIG's office wrote:
"The management alert released today also describes an incident earlier this year involving a traveler who was approached for a consensual encounter by a DEA Task Force Officer while boarding a flight. During this incident, after the traveler declined to provide consent, the DEA Task Force Officer detained the traveler’s carry-on bag; subsequently, a law enforcement drug-detection dog, according to the DEA, alerted to the bag. The passenger eventually signed a consent form. No cash, drugs, or other contraband was found. By that time, the traveler had missed the original flight. The traveler made a video recording of this encounter on a personal recording device, and an edited version of the video and audio has been made public. None of the members of the DEA Task Force Group were wearing a body-worn camera, which is not required by any DEA or Department policy.
The 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. The 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."
In a statement, the DEA said its program is undergoing a review.
"DEA is relentlessly committed to its core mission: saving American lives. We regularly review our enforcement efforts and programs to ensure that we are using resources in the best way to fulfill that mission. For the last several months, DEA has been conducting an internal review of its Transportation Interdiction Program, which has been suspended. That review is ongoing. The DEA is committed to executing our mission with integrity and professionalism at every turn."
Even with the temporary suspension, the Institute for Justice said more needs to be done to stop the procedure.
"It's critical that Congress act," Alban said. "To both make sure that this policy remains in place so that DEA doesn't prey on travelers. But it's also important that Congress act to fix these underlying incentives."
The Fair Actis pending in the House, that would revise federal laws governing civil asset forfeiture. This includes eliminating the financial incentive that currently exists for law enforcement to seize property. The money would be sent to the general fund of the U.S. Treasury rather than directly to the Department of Justice.
This story was originally published by Tim Kephart and Kylie McGivern at Scripps News Tampa.
