By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

The DEA is concerned about dirty money.

More specifically, the agency is concerned that drug-laced cash seized in narcotics busts could seriously injure—even kill—its agents, the Daily Beast reports.

So, the DEA has has begun reaching out to potential industry partners about decontaminating confiscated currency, the website reports.

“Some of the substances on the currency may be extremely harmful to human health and potentially result in death,” says a DEA solicitation posted late last week on a U.S. government procurement portal.

“It is expected that most of the substances on the contaminated currency will be controlled substances including, but not limited to, narcotics (fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, heroin), cannabinoids (marijuana, THC, JWH compounds), stimulants (amphetamines, cathinones), hallucinogens (LSD, PCP, NBOMes), depressants (benzodiazepines, barbiturates),” the solicitation continues. “Precursor chemicals used to make these substances and other unknown harmful chemicals may also be present on the currency.”

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A Secret Service technician whose job was to determine whether suspicious currency was counterfeit pocketed some of the cash that was authentic.

Shaun Qureshi, a 34-year-old Maryland resident who began working in the Secret Service’s Washington field office in 2009 as a”counterfeit technician,” pleaded guilty Friday to one felony count of illegal conversion of property, the Washington Post reports. 

Authorities said Qureshi sole between $20 and $200 nearly every day for 22 months, accumulating at least $8,000 between January 2013 to October 2014.

Qureshi eventually got caught after inadvertently pilfering counterfeit $100s and trying to deposit the fake money into his account.

Qureshi faces sentencing in October.

Drugs and cash seized in Portland.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The DEA is seizing massive amounts of cash from people who are not connected to a criminal investigation, according to a scathing report by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

In the 74-page report released Wednesday, the inspector general cautioned that the DEA may be violating the civil liberties of people whose is seized, the Washington Post reports.

The inspector general concluded the DEA was unable to demonstrate how asset forfeiture practices benefit criminal investigations.

The Post cites one example:

The DEA took more than $70,000 from a piece of checked luggage without doing any more investigation or attempting to question the owner at the airport — instead simply putting a receipt in the bag and sending it on to its final destination.

“Even accepting that the circumstances surrounding the discovery of this large volume of concealed currency justified law enforcement suspicion and seizure, we find it troubling that the DEA would make an administrative forfeiture without attempting to advance an investigation, especially considering that the DEA had opportunities to contact the potential owners of the currency instead of simply providing written notice of the seizure,” the inspector general wrote.

Border Patrol found $3 million in cash stuffed in a trunk, via Border Patrol.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Border Patrol agents are accustomed to finding cash or drugs packed away in vehicles.

But agents in San Diego were shocked when they opened the trunk of a car and found $3 million in cash, CNN reports.

“This is one of our larger cash seizures,” said Ralph DeSio, spokesman for the San Diego office of US Customs and Border Protection.

The bust is a major victory because it hurts the drug smugglers who rely on the cash.

The money was discovered in a Volkswagen Passat.

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By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The DEA has seized more than $203 million in cash at 15 major airports as part of an effort to stop narcotics traffickers between 2005 and mid-2015.

But the USA Today found that the DEA rarely uses information to make arrests or build criminal cases.

In most cases, the DEA seized the money and gave the suspected drug couriers a receipt for cash without filing charges. At times, more than $50,000 has been confiscated.

Trouble is, it’s difficult for travelers to get their money back. Much of the cash is sent to local police departments to assist in the drug crackdown.

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By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A controversial program that allows local police to seize and keep cash and property from people who were never charged or convicted of a crime is ending, the Justice Department announced Monday.

Federal forfeiture policies were long considered unfair by defense attorneys because police were allowed to keep up to 80% of the assets they seized, even when no charges were filed, the Washington Post reports.

The Justice Department announced it’s suspending the program due to budget cuts.

“While we had hoped to minimize any adverse impact on state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners, the Department is deferring for the time being any equitable sharing payments from the Program,” M. Kendall Day, chief of the asset forfeiture and money laundering section, wrote in a letter to state and local law enforcement agencies.

Some in the criminal justice community charged that police were pursuing cases because of profits.

“This is a significant deal,” said Lee McGrath, legislative counsel at the Institute for Justice, in an interview with the Washington Post. “Local law enforcement responds to incentives. And it’s clear that one of the biggest incentives is the relative payout from federal versus state forfeiture. And this announcement by the DOJ changes the playing field for which law state and local [law enforcement] is going to prefer.”

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

DETROIT — The FBI has arrested a man suspected of stealing more than $500,000 from an armored truck in Detroit’s Greektown, the Detroit Free Press reports. 

The FBI arrested the man Thursday afternoon at a home in Detroit, but declined to release more information.

The man is accused of dressing as a security guard and stealing several bags of cash from an armored truck on Nov. 28.

No one was injured in the theft.

Whitey Bulger/fbi

If Whitey dies before we find his blood money, he wins.

This is the last unfinished chapter in the sordid tale of the Bulgers. Where is Whitey’s dough? So far, they’ve found four of his safe-deposit boxes — in Montreal, Clearwater, London and Dublin — so how many more do you figure there are out there?

The feds discovered $822,000 cash in his Santa Monica love nest. How much more cash do you suppose is out there?

This is all about money.

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