This is why they waited 16 months to bust supertrips

http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/26/the-forfeiture-racket

Some police agencies come to view forfeiture not just as an occasional windfall for buying guns, police cars, or better equipment, but as a source of funding for basic operations. This is especially true with multijurisdictional drug task forces, some of which have become financially independent of the states, counties, and cities in which they operate, thanks to forfeiture and federal anti-drug grants.

In a 2001 study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice, the University of Texas at Dallas criminologist John Worral surveyed 1,400 police departments around the country on their use of forfeiture and the way they incorporated seized assets into their budgets. Worral, who describes himself as agnostic on the issue, concluded that "a substantial proportion of law enforcement agencies are dependent on civil asset forfeiture" and that "forfeiture is coming to be viewed not only as a budgetary supplement, but as a necessary source of income." Almost half of surveyed police departments with more than 100 law enforcement personnel said forfeiture proceeds were "necessary as a budget supplement" for department operations.

Such widespread use of forfeiture has created an industry of facilitators. Organizations such as the International Association for Asset Recovery sponsor conferences where law enforcement officials learn how to maximize their asset-seizing potential. They also offer certifications in forfeiture expertise. Advertising a Florida conference on its website in 2009, an outfit called Asset Recovery Watch (slogan: "Make the bad guys pay!") assures budget-conscious police departments that federal law permits them to use forfeiture funds to send police officers away to forfeiture conferences for training.

Forfeiture may also undermine actual enforcement of the law. In a 1994 study reported in Justice Quarterly, criminologists J. Mitchell Miller and Lance H. Selva observed several police agencies that identified drug supplies but delayed making busts to maximize the cash they could seize, since seized cash is more lucrative for police departments than seized drugs. This strategy allowed untold amounts of illicit drugs to be sold and moved into the streets, contrary to the official aims of drug enforcement.


Comments


[3 Points] Dunavo:

Reading this as a seller must make you paranoid.

For all you know you could be selling only because they're letting you. Worst part of it is, you could never determine when they've actually begun watching you.


[-1 Points] Trust_no-1:

Always treat every forum poster, buyer ,vendor , as a possible undercover LE Remember that your favorite market may be gone tomorrow, And if it is not happening now its only time before a law enforcement agency sets up their own dark net market as a sting and forwards unencrypted messages to local L.E and pockets the BTC when they eventually end the sting. --BE PARANOID you are being watched right now..?


[1 Points] twigburst:

It was the DEA, their budget isn't the same as local or state police. They got him when he arrived in the US.


[-20 Points] Jordanfelch:

You sir are an idiot.