Posted on 07/29/2020 7:04:40 AM PDT by edwinland
When he heads to airports now, Samuel Haile thinks of that day at Buffalo's airport a few years ago. The government took $12,000 from his carry-on and wouldn't give it back.
Haile was not charged with a crime
...
Dozens of passengers have suffered such a loss in recent years in Buffalo. With an X-ray machine, a screener spots a dense mass in a piece of luggage. If it's an unusually large sum of cash, the government takes it on the suspicion that it's drug money.
At Buffalo and every other airport in the country, the TSA screens bags and people in the name of airline safety, not because police have probable cause to think a crime is underway.
Still, those searches enrich law enforcement.
In Buffalo ... airport police and federal agents seized more than $860,000 over four years more than $17,000 a month, on average ... the dozens of travelers relieved of their money were sent on their way.
...
TSA screeners can only seize objects that might imperil an airliner, and cash does not pose such a threat. Yet the screeners set the wheels in motion. ... after spotting amounts as small as $6,000, screeners turned to supervisors, who turned to Niagara Frontier Transit Authority police. The police called in their federal partners in a joint task force, usually the DEA or the FBI.
...
A drug-sniffing dog was led in. Most paper currency in the United States has come into contact with drugs, research has shown. The dog, in cases reviewed by The News, consistently confirmed the scent of narcotics. That gave the officials the final measure of probable cause needed to keep the cash. In a few weeks, the traveler received mailed instructions on how to appeal for the money's return.
(Excerpt) Read more at buffalonews.com ...
Dumb logic. That’s like saying being in possession of a gun is probable cause to suspect murder.
Can you point me to the section in the Constitution where the fedgov gets the power to do this? Thanks in advance.
Most paper currency in the United States has come into contact with drugs, research has shown.
I recall seeing an article several years ago where they tested packs of brand new bills straight from the Fed, and they had cocaine residue on them. The residue allegedly gets on the bills when they are run through counting machines. This may well be true, but is also why drug dogs 'alerting' on cash should be absolutely inadmissible in court.
Of course, incidents like that described in the article rarely make it to court because it is often more expensive to pursue the case to get your money back, than the value of the money in question. Feds, on the other hand, have effectively unlimited budgets, and are more greedy than the most depraved pirates of old.
I read somewhere that 80% of US cash by value is in $100 bills. Which i have hardly ever seen.
Cash is like a giant interest free loan to the government. The more people get it and sit on it instead of using it buy stuff, the more the government can print and essentially keep the value for themselves, without causing inflation. (like the post office issuing stamps that people will never use)
Who uses almost all $100 bills and just sits on them instead of putting all that money in the bank? Lots of people, but a LOT of them are drug dealers.
That’s one of the reasons the government goes so hard after banks that accept deposits of “laundered” money. Banks like it because drug dealers don’t need to get a lot of interest, they just want someplace to park their money. But for the government that’s competition. And the government isn’t even paying interest.
What will that prove? You're still going to spend thousands to defend your money, because cash has no constitutional rights. It is guilty until proven innocent, and you have to fund that proving.
Good grief. Thats hilarious!
Yup. Even cashier's checks can be forged, and it can often take five or more days for the bank to come back saying it was bad. If that happens, they will come to you for the cash.
Ha!
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