24-year-old Charles Clarke lost his entire life savings of $11,000—a sum it took him five years to accrue—all because a few law enforcement officials thought his airport luggage smelled like marijuana.
The officers did not actually find drugs in his possession, and police never charged him with a crime. But thanks to civil asset forfeiture laws, police need only suspect that a crime may have possibly been committed before seizing personal property and treating it guilty until proven innocent.
It’s been over a year, and Clarke has yet to see his money returned.
“I saved up the money to use for living expenses and for future savings, and now it is gone,” Clarke said in a statement. “After the money was seized, it was very hard for me to make ends meet. I had to borrow money from family, and I was embarrassed.
“No one should have to go through the nightmare I went through simply because they choose to carry their hard-earned cash.”
The Institute for Justice is now defending Clarke and attempting to win back his savings.
“Police and prosecutors cannot treat citizens like ATMs,” IJ Attorney Renée Flaherty said in a statement.
According to IJ, Clarke was on the way to visit his mother, a disabled veteran, when the police stopped him. He had brought the $11,000 with him for safekeeping.
When they seized the money, officers also claimed Clarke’s “travel on a recently purchased one-way ticket,” and “inability to provide documentation for source of currency” were reason to be suspicious.
Clarke admits that he had smoked marijuana in the past, but insists it was not often. ”I’m not a drug dealer. I never have been,” he told Vox.
“I didn’t think it was a crime to carry cash,” he said.
IJ also reports that the the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport, where Clarke was stopped, raked in $2 million in seizures in 2013 alone.
Law enforcement officials can use civil asset forfeiture laws to seize massive amounts of property and cash, and keep most of the profits to pad their budgets.
In a similar case earlier this year, the IRS returned $10,000 to a small business owner after IJ took his case to the media. The IRS often uses civil asset forfeiture to seize money from businesses they suspect of “structuring” violations–making cash deposits just under $10,000, which some businesses do to avoid federal reporting requirements.
