The Economist has an interesting story about how the DEA has been paying transportation employees a percentage of the results of any seizures or confiscations.
There are many reasons why you might have been stopped at an American transport hub and your bag searched by officials. You might have be[sic] chosen at random. Perhaps you matched a profile. Or you could have been flagged by an airline, railroad or security employee who was being secretly paid by the government as a confidential informant to uncover evidence of drug smuggling.
A committee of Congress heard remarkable testimony last week about a long-running programme by the Drug Enforcement Administration. For years, officials from the Department of Justice testified, the DEA has paid millions of dollars to a variety of confidential sources to provide tips on travellers who may be transporting drugs or large sums of money. Those sources include staff at airlines, Amtrak, parcel services and even the Transportation Safety Administration.
The testimony follows a report by the Justice Department that uncovered the DEA programme and detailed its many potential violations. According to that report, airline employees and other informers had an incentive to search more travellers' bags, since they received payment whenever their actions resulted in DEA seizures of cash or contraband.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Sunday December 11 2016, @09:41PM
1. Pay people to search bags needlessly.
2. Find someone carrying significant cash.
3. Confiscate the cash using asset forfeiture, because...why not?
4. Profit!
Whatever happened to the requirement for a warrant, before searching for evidence of criminal activity? This is the DEA making an end-run around y'alls Constitution. The people running the program are performing illegal searches, and should be prosecuted.
The same for the rest of the Western world: searching someone is supposed to require a warrant. There is no reason for law enforcement to be involved in airport security checks.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Monday December 12 2016, @03:11AM
thats all they've ever done since the moment they were created. their fucking mission statement is "Violate the Constitution and the people's trust in law enforcement and justice in every way possible". this is the one single agency that absolutely must go, but since the fascists are coming to full power, you can bet that they're going to get a massive expansion in the very near future.
(Score: 1) by redneckmother on Monday December 12 2016, @03:42PM
How dare you insinuate that Donito Trumpolini is a fascist?!?!
Mas cerveza por favor.