The DEA Was Ordered To Stop Stealing Cash From Passengers — Now Homeland Security Is Seizing The Money Instead

A year ago the Department of Justice ordered the DEA to stop searching passengers at airports and taking their cash – without probable cause, crimes, or charges. Over a 10-year period, the DEA had seized over $4 billion in cash, the vast majority of which was unconnected to any crime or charge.

You might think that means that law enforcement will no longer stop passengers in airports and take their money. But that would be wrong. Since they get to keep the cash there’s a strong incentive to continue the practice.

• DOJ killed DEA’s infamous “jetway robbery” program at airports.
  
• But the forfeiture machine didn’t stop. Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and local police seize cash instead.

The Dallas Morning News has coverage of these efforts from a local angle. Agents are seizing large amounts of cash from passengers at DFW airport and Love Field without arresting them or charging them with a crime.

Instead of approaching passengers at gates, they’re using drug dogs. The dog sniffs, no drugs are found, but they find cash and take it. No charges are filed. Agents are focusing on:

• One-way tickets deeming these suspicious
  
• Travel to Los Angeles or other ‘known drug markets’
  
• Tickets purchsaed within 48 hours of departure (important business travel!)
  
• Passengers with criminal records.
  
• Little or no clothing or personal items in luggage, dryer sheets, sanitizing wipes, or perfume in bags.
  
• They also often search phones for messages or photos suggesting drug dealing or money laundering.

This works because (1) dog alerts are unreliable and easily cued by handlers, and (2) most cash is contaminated with drug residue anyway. So dogs alert, find cash not drugs, and officers get to take it.

A couple of examples in the piece are especially interesting, because they occurred with JSX passengers departing from a private terminal at Dallas Love Field.

• January 2025: Homeland Security agents say they smell marijuana from two suitcases. They don’t find any drugs, but the passenger had $800,000. They seized the money. No charges were ever filed.

• February 2025: A drug dog alerted to bags. Officers found and seized $356,880 in cash. No charges here eihter – and the passenger managed to prosecute their claim and get about half the money returned (about as strong an argument for the government being completely in the wrong as there is – they offer some money back as a settlement waiving all claims).

I don’t know that JSX and its passengers are being targeted but it’s worth knowing that the government isn’t focused on commercial terminals exclusively, and that flying out of private terminals isn’t a warkaround to protect your rights. A JSX spokesperson shared,

At JSX, we hold deep respect for the work of federal agencies such as DHS, HSI, and Border Patrol. Their commitment to traveler safety and security spans passenger terminals, private hangars, and beyond, underscoring that no one, regardless of how or where they travel, is above the law. We work closely with regulators and partners to continuously identify ways to simplify the travel experience without compromising safety or security.

I’ve written about civil asset forfeiture at airports before, and even served as an expert witness in a case against the practice.

• The government seizes cash without charging anyone with a crime.
  
• Then the victim has to prove the money wasn’t used in a crime to get it back. There’s a byzantine process for doing this, and usually the victim has to enter into a partial settlement to get anything back at all, which includes a promise not to sue.
  
• And the way this is all structured, the agency seizing the money gets to keep part of it for themselves.

Even just flying Dallas to Los Angeles or Atlanta to Chicago is enough of a predicate, because passengers are flying from ‘one known drug location’ to another. The government considers one way tickets suspicious. For years airline pricing practices changed so that it often made more sense to book one ways. (We’ve seen a return of some roundtrip pricing.)

Even though it is your right, it’s a good idea not to carry large amounts of cash with you at the airport. It’s subject to confiscation. And if you’re carrying more than $10,000 out of the United States, you need to register that with the government – not just with the country you’re carrying it into.

More on civil asset forfeiture, from Last Week Tonight: