In what can only really be described as a racist profiling (in my opinion) a young man had his $11,000 life savings seized by the Feds as he travelled through Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in February 2014.

The officers claimed they smelled marijuana on him but came up with no drugs in a search. But they found the $11k savings that he had with him and claimed it was drug money. So, they seized the money he had earmarked for college under civil asset forfeiture.

He was also arrested for disorderly conduct, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest but this was dropped and he never faced drug charges!

So, this civil forfeiture effectively allows police to steal money and property and even without charging they often get to keep it and funnel it back into the department! They can enact this without much or any evidence.

It amounts to theft, albeit protected by a BS law!

Clarke fought the theft, he had to take a lot of time proving they had stolen it from him as the law sees people guilty until proven innocent.

The Huffington Post reported:

In 2015, the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm that believes all forfeiture should require a criminal conviction, took up Clarke’s case pro bono. The officers who had seized Clarke’s cash were members of a local Drug Enforcement Administration task force, and had sent the forfeiture action to federal prosecutors to oversee. Representatives for both parties agreed this week that they would no longer pursue litigation. The settlement did not award Clarke any further compensatory damages.

“Charles is very pleased that he will get his life savings back and that the whole ordeal is now behind him,” said Institute for Justice attorney Darpana Sheth in a statement.

Clarke is now finishing up his degree from the University of Central Florida.

But the Institute for Justice’s quest to end civil forfeiture continues, as police across the nation continue to snatch up assets in a highly lucrative scheme that has attracted critics from across the political spectrum.

“[Civil forfeiture] allows law enforcement to seize and keep property without ever charging someone with a crime,” said Sheth. “Even worse, it encourages law enforcement to seize as much money and property as possible by allowing agencies to keep the proceeds for themselves.”

src: Huff

He really should have received more for his trouble. This amounts to theft and nothing else.