Professional poker player David Peat was mugged by the DEA to the tune of about sixty large at the Detroit airport for buying a first class ticket with cash. They say he may get his cash and watch back later.
Someone needs to put the legal smackdown on these thugs. Seizing property without a criminal conviction is theft, plain and simple, and those who engage in it should be held accountable, from the agents doing the seizing to their supervisors to those who made the policy. It’s absurd, grotesque, and unamerican. Cash is not a crime.
Were they really DEA? Apparently, the gambler was taken aside and asked to remove any money and all of his jewelry, and he started to comply before they produced any ID. When he finally gets suspicious and yells for a cop, a security guard shows up and tells him they’re DEA. WTF? I realize that it’s unfair to call all TSA crooked based on case after case of TSA agents caught on film stealing items from luggage, but there have been quite a few cases of TSA agents caught on film stealing items from luggage. I’m sure there is a cool-sounding name for the type of con where a shill with minimal legitimate authority (security guard, fireman, truck driver) vouches for an accomplice with greater fake authority. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t fall for something like this, especially nowadays, but the details sound like a con.
It’s certainly consistent with DEA behavior. I’m sure Radley Balko (the libertarian author of the Agitator blog) will be following the story closely, and I’ll provide pointers to any followup information.
Suspected of being a terrorist because he carries a lot of cash, huh?
TOLD YA!!!!!!
SME