The Justice Department Inspector General submitted a report that the Drug Enforcement Administration has taken billions of dollars from people who are never charged with a crime. The report found $4 billion In cash was seized from people involved in drugs in 2007 but the people that cover 81% of that $4 billion were never charged, civil or criminal.

Law enforcement claims its valuable to fight gangs by taking their drugs and profit.

These seizures are all legal under the controversial practice of civil asset forfeiture, which allows authorities to take cash, contraband and property from people suspected of crime.

But the practice does not require authorities to obtain a criminal conviction, and it allows departments to keep seized cash and property for themselves unless individuals successfully challenge the forfeiture in court. – Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post