Justice Department suspends random DEA searches of travelers at airport after report finds ‘serious concerns’

The Drug Enforcement Administration is no longer allowed to randomly search travelers at airports and other places of transit after a scathing report from the Justice Department found “serious concern” about the practice.

DEA agents failed to properly document searches, may have illegally targeted several people and, in at least one case, paid an airline employee tens of thousands of dollars over several years to raise search warrants, according to a report released Thursday by the Justice Department’s inspector general. Michael Horowitz.

The deputy attorney general ordered the DEA to stop the random search on November 12 after seeing a draft of the memo.

AFTER THE POLICE CHAMPION THE LIVES OF KAMALINE VET, THE GOVERNMENT HELPS HIM SAVE OTHERS FROM CANDIDATES.

The report refers to a video of one traveler’s experience, which first went viral in July when it was released by the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit human rights law firm.

“I refuse to be searched, sir,” the passenger, identified as David C., told a federal agent who wanted to search his bag.

“You don’t have to agree,” the agent replied in the video, which was recorded earlier this year. When David again says he does not agree, the other man says, “I don’t care what [about] things of your consent.”

David kept filming as the agent removed his bag from the plane and waited for the drug detection dog. The agent said the dog alerted him to the bag. David continued to refuse to consent to the search, but finally agreed. The agent found nothing illegal in the backpack, but by the time the ordeal was over, David had missed his flight to New York.

David was singled out because he bought a last-minute ticket, the agent said in the video.

“We wouldn’t be doing this, and we were doing it all over the country if it wasn’t illegal,” the agent can be heard saying near the end of the recording. “It was going to be closed.”

A subsequent investigation found that the DEA had been paying at least one airline employee a percentage of the holdback for several years to obtain information about passengers who purchased tickets to certain cities within 48 hours of travel.

That airline employee received tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from the DEA over the years, the OIG found.

It’s almost impossible to say how many travelers have been subject to such searches, because the OIG report notes that the DEA rarely leaves a paper trail unless a search results in an arrest or arrest.

“[The] The OIG report confirms what we’ve been saying for years about the DEA’s airport raid practices,” IJ senior attorney Dan Alban said in a statement.

A 2016 investigation by USA Today found that DEA agents at 15 major airports seized more than $209 million in cash from at least 5,200 travelers over the past decade. Most of that money was allocated to local police departments, the report said.

Fox News Digital previously spoke to singer Brian Moore, who was held in a $8,500 hold while waiting at his gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Moore was not charged with a crime and got his money back after a year-long legal battle that cost him $15,000 — nearly twice the amount the DEA took.

“It was terrible, the worst thing in my life,” Moore said. “Basically, in that one day, in those few minutes, they are my entire musical career.”

THIS COUPLE WAS LEFT OUT OF THE HOUSE AFTER THE POLICE SEIZED THEIR MONEY. JUDGE PREDICTED $1 MILLION

IJ is currently suing the DEA and TSA over their airport seizure and seizure practices, and is advocating for legislation that would eliminate “the profit motive that fuels illegal searches.”

“We welcome the DOJ’s suspension of this program as a first step, but policy guidelines can be changed at any time, under this or future administrations,” Alban continued.

The Justice Department memo freezes “all plea agreements at mass transit facilities unless they are connected to an ongoing investigation or authorized by the DEA Administrator based on existing circumstances.”

“The DEA’s failure to collect information on each encounter, as required by its policy, and its continued inability to provide us with any evaluation of the effectiveness of these interdiction efforts further raises questions about whether these transportation interdiction operations are an effective use of law enforcement resources—and leaves the DEA it also cannot provide adequate answers to those questions,” Horowitz wrote.

The report advises the DEA to reconsider whether buying a last-minute plane ticket alone raises criminal activity, and if agents’ practice of approaching passengers as they try to board “an imminently departing flight may be viewed as putting undue pressure on travelers to accept these requests.”

Brian Moore said at first he thought the DEA agents who seized his money were people impersonating government officials who were robbing him. He said he was bringing $8,500 with him to Los Angeles to pay for his first music video. (Courtesy of Brian Moore)

The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

The OIG noted that DEA agents are not required to wear body cameras, making David C’s recording “an important collusion record.”

David was one of five passengers flagged for search that day, according to the report, although the delay caused by refusing to let an agent search his bag meant agents could not contact other travelers.

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEWS PROGRAM

None of the passengers had “related criminal history” or any other reason to suggest they “may be engaged in illegal activity,” the report said.