Fun with Drug Money 
by Jessica Barberry'03

Families are ripped apart and lives are desecrated as the "war" rages, increasing it's momentum with every dream it swallows. It's all too easy to turn an apethic cheek to conflicts in the east, but this battle rages between our own boarders, and still few are willing to fight. The innocent victums continue to drop and the time has come to take a stand. This "war" on drugs and it's floundering attempts to keep our country "clean" continues to abuse this countries constituants. By exploiting forfeiture laws, local and federal law enforcement reap selfish benifits at the distruction of innocent lives, all in the name of the "war on drugs".

This is how it works.  Because of the congressional rewrite of civil forfeiture law, local police departments can take advantage of what's called "equitable sharing." This allows PD's to federalize their forfeiture seizures and bypass the stricture laws of local government (which would mandate that confiscated funds be shared with libraries or drug rehab programs). If an agency like the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) decides to "adopt" the forfeiture, a small percentage of the funds will be kept and more than half of the assets will be returned to local police. It's a quick and easy way to earn extra cash and leaves the prospect of having self-financed law enforcement, who don't need to justify their extra income through formal budgetary process, free to create their own agenda. The "checks and balances" principal our country is so proud of is eliminated, and the threat of power abuse becomes real.

It's helpful to know the details of legal money laundering, but the exciting stuff happens when this reward system turns sour. For example a pot dealer is more likely to be busted than crank (methamphetamine) dealers simply because meth pushers tend to occur on valueless property.

Here’s an example.  There is an appalling case which involves Donald Scott, a 61-year-old wealthy California recluse. Scott lived on a $5 million, 200-acre ranch in Malibu adjacent to a large recreational area maintained by the National Park Service. Tragically for him, in 1992 the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department received a false report that Scott was growing several thousand marijuana plants on his land. It assembled a team--including agents from the Los Angeles Police Department, the park Service, the D.E.A., the Forest Service, the California National Guard and the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement--to investigate the tip, largely through the use of air and ground surveillance missions. Despite several unsuccessful efforts to corroborate the informant's claim, and despite advice the Scott posed little threat of violence, the L.A Sheriff's Department dispatched a multi-jurisdictional team to conduct a military-style raid. On October 2, 1992, at 8:30a.m., thirty officers descended upon the Scott ranch with high-powered weapons, flak jackets, dogs, a battering ram and what purported to be a lawful search warrant. After knocking and announcing their presence, they kicked in the door and rushed through the house. There they saw Scott, armed with a gun in response to his wife's screams. With Scott's wife watching in horror, agents fired two bullets into Scott's chest and killed him. They found no marijuana plants, other drugs or paraphernalia anywhere.  After Scott's death an investigation was conducted by the Ventura County District Attorney's office and in a seventy-page report found no evidence to suspect Scott of marijuana possession and that "the information supporting the warrant was false while exculpatory evidence was withheld from the judge." As the District Attorney's report concluded, "..one of the purposes of this operation was to garner the proceeds expected from forfeiture of the $5 million ranch. The investigation found that as they invaded the property, the officers--with two asset forfeiture specialists in tow--were armed with a property appraisal of Scott's ranch, a parcel map of the ranch marked with the sale price of a nearby property and instructions to seize the ranch if at least fourteen marijuana plants were found."

 As former New York City Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy told congress, forfeiture gives police "a financial incentive to impose roadblocks on the southbound lanes of I-95 which carry the cash to make drug buys, rather than the northbound lanes, which carry the drugs. After all, seized cash will end up forfeited to the police department, while seized drugs can only be destroyed." Forfeiture encourages police lawlessness and selective enforcement, which compromises our rights as citizens, including our safety, something that these agencies were established to ensure. The easy answer to forfeiture abuse is to pass an act mandating that assets be directly deposited to the Treasury's general fund. By eliminating this extra source of income, local police departments lose the incentive that leads them to put us at risk time and time again. Changing the system is difficult, time consuming and frustrating but the most important step is to be informed! For more information and believe me there's tons, visit http://www.fear.org  and learn about how Forfeiture endangers America's rights.    

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