Whether you "think" they are criminals is NOT the standard.
I read about a guy who had about 20K in cash confiscated at the Atlanta airport. He had purchesed a one way ticket to New Orleans in cash and this alerted the "authorities."
Sounds criminal, right?
Well, it turned out the guy was a dealer of plants and trees, and he was on his way to Louisiana to buy a bunch of landscaping, and bring it back in a rented Ryder truck.
As far as I know he never got his money back.
In 2000, Congress passed CAFRA, which substantially changed the federal asset forfeiture laws. The government would have to file within 90 days, and the government now has the burden of proof (not the defendant). Also, Willie would have received his cash back, plus interest, and the federal government would have been responsible for his legal expenses.
The new laws corrected much of the past abuses. However, if you want to focus on these old stories, fine. When you're done, then we can talk about the history of slavery in the United States too.
Willie Jones, a second-generation nursery man in his family's Nashville business, bundles up money from last year's profits and heads off to buy flowers and shrubs in Houston. He makes this trip twice a year using cash, which the small growers prefer.
But this time, as he waits at the American Airlines gate in Nashville Metro Airport, he's flanked by two police officers who escort him into a small office, search him and seize the $9,600 he's carrying. A ticket agent had alerted the officers that a large black man had paid for his ticket in bills, unusual these days. Because of the cash, and the fact that he fit a "profile" of what drug dealers supposedly look like, they believed he was buying or selling drugs.
He's free to go, he's told. But they keep his money - his livelihood - and give him a receipt in its place.
No evidence of wrongdoing was ever produced. No charges were ever filed. As far as anyone knows, Willie Jones neither uses drugs nor buys or sells them. He is a gardening contractor who bought an airplane ticket. Who lost his hard-earned money to the cops. And can't get it back. (From the Presumed Guilty series, by The Pittsburgh Press)
Whether you "think" they are criminals is NOT the standard.
Unfortunately, it seems to be (even post-CAFRA2K). "Presumption of innocence" is not required for civil forfeiture. Nice evasion of criminal requirements, eh?
Disclaimer: IANAL :-)