‘Didn’t State Who He Was’: Federal Drug Agents Seize Millions from Passengers at Atlanta Airport While Posing as Regular Travelers In Plainclothes In ‘Cold Consent Encounters’
‘Didn’t State Who He Was’: Federal Drug Agents Seize Millions from Passengers at Atlanta Airport While Posing as Regular Travelers In Plainclothes In ‘Cold Consent Encounters’
Catching many travelers off guard is a new practice being stealthily carried out by drug agents dressed as plainclothes passengers at the Atlanta airport who […]
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Of course Yahoo buried the lede:
While the searches may not be popular, they’re certainly profitable.
Clayton County records and federal documents show that drug agents find large amounts of cash on passengers at departing gates rather than drugs. Agents have seized millions of dollars, and while travelers aren’t arrested, their money is often administratively forfeited.
Like most civil forfeiture cases, people who have their money taken must prove in court that their money isn’t connected to drug trafficking or other illegal activity. Seizures like these don’t just happen at the Atlanta airport. They’ve taken place at airports across the country.
Nah, they REALLY buried the lede with this bit further down. Emphasis added.
Most travelers are unclear of their rights when it comes to airport searches. In order to be admitted entry to the airport’s gated areas, passengers must submit themselves to TSA security screenings. That’s a fact.
However, the random searches by DEA agents at the Atlanta airport give passengers pause, but it should be noted that they’re not mandated. The DEA officially calls its stops and searches at airport gates “cold consent encounters,” and passengers are free to end the encounter and walk away if they’d like.
free to end the encounter and walk away if they'd like.
Well I know what I'm going to do. "Get fucked pig" and walk off.
Willing to bet just about anything that the second you try, they'll find probable cause to detain you
I'll gladly make it an aggravated arrest.
Might end up on a no fly list and with federal charges, but you've surely showed them.
They have the upper hand, and no amount of imagined badassery will fix this systemic problem.
You're just dead set on being murdered by a cop, aren't you? 🤦
You do you and I do me. Let's not judge each other and instead remember we're on the same side fighting for the same thing just in different ways.
After all, I'm not asking you to do as I do. That should mean something right?
You're welcome to try, but your whole attitude seems rooted in the idea that at the end of the day, the justice system is on your side and that you can beat them at your own game.
More likely you'll get arrested, probably have some BS charges thrown at you that the judge will happilly pass through, you'll never fly again, and maybe even see some jail time.
There are many valid and important ways to fight back against police injustice. Yelling "get fucked pig" - while satisfying, and even justified - is definitely not one of them, even if talking about doing it does make you feel like a badass lol
You're making an assumption that I believe in the justice system.
You're very likely (95%) correct that I'll get fucked over by the entire system, and I'm willing to accept that. I don't care if I lose. I care that I tried.
Seems like a waste to me, if you're literally willing to give up your freedom to fight the system, it'd make a lot more sense to do it in a way that might actually lead to change
But hey, it's your life to throw away 🤷🏼♂️
Shhh just make me a martyr to the cause yo.
You ever had. Real encountered with the police? They'll just make some shit up and search you anyway best case scenario. More likely is you now upset them and they arrest you for whatever they make up on the spot, I believe there was just a supreme court ruling that they can make up a reason for stops/arrests after the fact and that's perfectly fine as well.
So, while I agree with the sentiment, I wouldn't try anything like that. The police state is real and oppressive. You want to avoid any interaction with it and the US system at all costs.
Lol I've been given a breathalyzer by the fucking police all because I stopped on the side of the road after avoiding getting hit by traffic 7 times.
Yeah I've dealt with the pigs. Fuck em and if I'm the process of fucking I get arrested on bullshit charges and convicted then so be it.
DEA isn't real police though. Mind you i wouldn't try that shit, i like having teeth and dislike dealing with violent gangs.
DEA isn't real police though.
Yeah they are and they're usually even WORSE than regular cops. ACAB means federal cops too.
Probably safer to at least try "sorry, I don't have time for this" while just walking away
Probably but my intent isn't to go for peaceful. If your intent is, I hope it works out for you.
Oh, I see... You want to get arrested.
I'll pass on that since I've been through the experience more times than I can count already but good luck with that.
Less so want to get arrested. More so, willing to deal with the consequences of my own actions.
If that means getting arrested for telling a pig to fuck off then so be it.
... to the cinnebon, 20 yards away
Meet up at the cinnebon then ran away to South America together?
Yeah because that's how encounters with cops ever happen 🙄
If I had a dollar for every time a cop has murdered someone for failing to obey an unlawful order, I would be rich enough for cops to let me get away with anything!
The DEA is a failed experiment filled to the brim with corruption and toxicity. It should've been dismantled decades ago. Redundant executive agencies have gotten out of control in the US (e.g. Dept of Homeland Sec (DHS), NSA, DEA, etc). There's nothing the DEA does that the FBI isn't capable of doing. Same with DHS. And I won't even get into how the DEA violated the Constitution by essentially writing their own laws regarding drugs (i.e. Controlled Substances Act states that determination if drugs have medical use is to be conducted by the Surgeon General, yet the DEA repeatedly ignored SG and just labels drugs however the fuck they want).
DHS was meant to be the answer for your concern. Why have many agencies with separately defined jurisdictions, checks and balances and limitations when you can combine them into one monstrous entity that can work together without pesky limitations like Constitutional rights or public transparency
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-02/23_0221_dhs_public-organization-chart.pdf
must prove in court that their money isn’t connected to drug trafficking or other illegal activity
Ah yes, the cornerstone of US law, “guilty until proven innocent”
Generally I would agree with you on that but here aren't they already guilty of moving large cash amounts without any sort of authorization? (I don't know if it's legal or not to transport that much cash in the US)
It is legal to carry any amount of cash in the US, as far as i'm aware. The main risk is that the cops will just steal it from you and then there's no realistic recourse.
Thanks for actually answering instead of just downvoting my question!
If it's your money you can do whatever the hell you want with it. I think title 31 regulates if you are moving money for other people/money laundry, etc
Are there rules in some countries about not being allowed to carry as much cash as you want/need? That seems very strange to me as a US citizen. Is it because you might use it for drugs/other off the books transactions? or just because it's dangerous and you might get robbed?
There's rules about crossing borders, with the intent of curbing tax evasion and money laundering. But even then it's mostly an obligation to report.
In France it is illegal to have more than 10k€ on your person. So moving large sum of cash is illegal but there might be a way to have a proper authorization to do so?
It’s perfectly legal in the US to carry any amount of cash, but …… asset forfeiture has turned into a situation where if police assume it was used for a crime, they can steal it from you without actually proving there was a crime committed.
While I can see that in a lot of cases large amounts of cash are related to crimes, there are also plenty of cases where that’s not true. More importantly it’s a workaround for your Constitutional protections that should be illegal as hell
This is just flat out robbery.
Civil forfeiture is one of many bullshit laws that exists only to protect and serve the police.
How is this allowed in US, it's what you might expect from a police force in a third world country
It shouldn’t be. Steve Lehto covers it a lot on his channel. So much there’s an actual playlist and I can tell you there’s more than 23 videos on the topic.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIN0HaGKANpp8-Zw7NEh9XokjmzYCIRiL
In fact these are all over a year old. It’s just abhorrent.
Did they? That's pretty much what I got out of the headline.