Asset Forfeiture: Florida Task Force So Out of Control Even
the Feds are Embarrassed
drcnet.org
DRCNet readers are all too familiar with the horror stories
generated by asset forfeiture, the civil procedure the government
uses to seize cash, bank accounts, houses, cars, and other
properties it claims are the fruit of crime. In fact, the
national chorus of complaints grew so loud that Congress was
finally forced to pass a modest asset forfeiture reform bill this
year.
But the new law only applies to federal seizures. The vast
majority of drug arrests and attendant seizures occur at the
state and local level. Now, US News & World Report has reported
on a particularly egregious example of entrepreneurial policing
and seizure fever run amok.
The South Florida Impact Task Force, operating out of Coral
Gables, has been a rousing success by drug war standards.
Impact's 50 officers, detailed from state and local law
enforcement agencies, have seized more than $140 million in
suspect funds and confiscated 30 tons of cocaine and almost seven
tons of marijuana.
Impact officers have arrested 532 people and been responsible for
71 deportations since the task force came into being in 1993.
The task force has pumped millions of dollars in seized funds
into the accounts of participating police agencies. Drug czar
Barry McCaffrey even cited it as an example of effective law
enforcement.
But not everyone is so pleased. Its critics include the DEA, the
Justice Department, and law enforcement experts, as well as
defense attorneys and civil libertarians. The critics also
include legitimate businessmen who had the misfortune to
encounter the Impact Task Force:
* Penn Industries, a family-run Oklahoma City auto parts
distributor had $78,000 in its bank accounts seized after Impact
noticed Penn's sole Colombian customer had used a money exchange
to deposit $2,500 in Penn's account. Impact claimed the money
was profits from illegal drug deals. After two months of
negotiations and $13,000 in legal fees, Penn got its money back
-- except for $3,000.
* In 1998, Hernon Manufacturing of Orlando, an epoxy
manufacturer, had $30,000 seized from its bank accounts after
Impact again found a transaction with a lone Colombian client.
The money, less $6,000 for Impact's "legal fees," was returned
four months later.
* That same year, Omega Medical Instruments, a small medical
equipment supplier in Wilmington, NC, had its accounts seized as
well. Impact had found a cash deposit from a Colombian client.
Most of the funds were returned early this year.
"There was no due process," Penn's Clay Waterman told US News.
"Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?"
"This is not too much different from the Sheriff of Nottingham,
except we don't have any Robin Hood," Robert Bauman told DRCNet.
Bauman, a former Maryland congressman, is on the board of the
forfeiture reform organization Forfeiture Endangers American
Rights (FEAR -- fear.org).
"I wish I could say this was unusual, but it's not and it's been
going on for a long time," added Bauman. "That doesn't justify
this conduct, but it doesn't surprise me."
But there is more to this story than merely some overreaching by
enthusiastic drug warriors. The South Florida Impact Task Force
appears to have some unique and disturbing features.
Impact is an entirely self-funding operation. In other words, to
survive it must seize assets. Asset forfeiture is both its
reason and its means for existing. This institutional imperative
to search and seize led to what US News qualified as
"overaggressive" property seizures.
There is more. Woody Kirk, a retired US Customs officer who
cofounded the task force with former FBI agent Mike Wald, had
financial arrangements with Impact that has raised eyebrows and
tempers across the board. While Wald joined Impact as a Coral
Gables police commander, Kirk signed on as a full-time
consultant.
With a string of potentially valuable informers in tow from his
days as a money-laundering investigator at Customs, Kirk cut a
deal with Impact in which the task force gave him a 25% cut of
all assets he helped seize.
He earned $625,000 in just the first year of the task force's
operations. "It was," Kirk told US News, "a very good deal."
Joseph McNamara, formerly chief of police in San Jose and Kansas
City and currently a research fellow at Stanford University's
Hoover Institute, was surprised. "I'm writing a book about
thousands of cases where cops abuse asset forfeiture, but I've
never heard of anything that formal," he told DRCNet.
Neal Sonnett, the Miami-based former president of the National
Association of Criminal Defense lawyers, was incredulous. "This
is very strange," he told DRCNet. "They're a vigilante group."
It was a little too strange even for the Justice Department,
which threatened to end cooperation with the task force unless
the deal was halted. To comply, Impact put Kirk on a $10,666
monthly retainer.
But the creative Kirk still wasn't done. He confirmed to US News
that he had begun asking his informants to sign contracts handing
him a 15% commission on rewards they received from asset
forfeiture cases. He lent one informant $115,000 as an "advance"
on future seizure income; in another case, Kirk lent an informant
$50,000 in return for a 60% share.
Such deals are apparently not illegal under existing law, but
even Kirk's colleagues in the drug war can barely stomach this.
"It's abhorrent, it just grates on the nerves of a lot of cops
who've done the work that Kirk has done," former Customs agent
Bill Gately told US News.
"In money laundering investigations there can be no room for any
personal interest in any transaction," former DEA dirty money
specialist John Moynihan told the magazine.
McNamara, however, pointed out that it was only Kirk's brazenness
that was unusual. "Lots of people personally profit from the
drug war, and not just crooked police," he said. "Drug testing
labs, mandatory treatment programs, police and prison guards
unions, and don't forget the cartels. Eisenhower warned us about
the military-industrial complex; there's a drug war complex as
well."
What the Impact Task Force has done "shouldn't be done," McNamara
added, "but until these laws are repealed this kind of corruption
is waiting to happen and does happen every day."
"It's inherent in the conception of the current statutes, because
the money substantially goes for the police to augment salaries,
budgets, and expenses," the ex-chief explained. "There's an
incentive for police to take property."
But there is still more. Under the tutelage of Kirk, one of the
Impact Task Force's techniques was the money laundering sting.
To gain credibility with suspected money launderers, Impact
itself laundered more than $120 million since 1994. Most of that
money went back to drug dealers.
Ex-DEA analyst Moynihan told US News, "You want to seize at least
twice what you launder. If not, you're creating as much crime as
you're solving."
Impact's overseers, a committee of state and local officials,
have no problems with the task force, but now the DEA and Customs
have announced they have severed ties with Impact, and the
Justice Department is conducting a review that could halt all
federal cooperation with the task force.
McNamara is not reassured. "When it comes to the war on drugs,
the feds are the worst. They certainly fought tooth and nail
against federal asset forfeiture reforms. They think they're
fighting a holy war, so anything goes. Forget about the Bill of
Rights or ethics as long as they're fighting the evil of drugs."
"This is just another example of the moral bankruptcy of the war
on drugs," he concluded. |
