XPost: alt.airports.us.atlanta, alt.law-enforcement.corruption,    
   alk.politics.guns   
   XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.society.liberalism, sac.politics   
   From: remailer@domain.invalid   
      
   In article    
      
   Catching many travelers off guard is a new practice being stealthily   
   carried out by drug agents dressed as plainclothes passengers at the   
   Atlanta airport who are randomly searching people they suspect are   
   transporting drug money.   
      
   Atlanta News First Investigates reporters tailed Drug and   
   Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force officers at the   
   Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as they worked to track   
   down potential drug mules making their way through various   
   terminals. Atlanta Black Star also covered the claim of comedians   
   Eric André and Clayton English, who alleged they were racially   
   profiled by police and questioned about drugs at the airport on   
   separate occasions in 2021 and 2020.   
      
   Unsuspecting travelers never realized these were federal drug agents   
   until they were approached by one at their gates.   
      
   “He just approached me, and he asked me for my ID,” film director   
   Tabari Sturdivant told Atlanta News First. “He didn’t state who he   
   was. He just asked me for ID, and I thought he was a Delta agent. He   
   had airport credentials on, and so I gave it to him immediately.”   
      
   Sturdivant, an Atlanta-based film director, was heading to L.A. for   
   a film project when a group of task force officers walked up to him   
   and requested to search his carry-on luggage in front of other   
   passengers at his gate.   
      
   The officers didn’t find anything illegal, but during the search,   
   they asked if he was high or if he was carrying drugs and cash.   
      
   It’s not just the DEA that’s walking around Hartsfield-Jackson in   
   plain clothes. Clayton County narcotics officers are also in on the   
   action because some are reportedly cross-sworn as DEA task force   
   officers.   
      
   Hollywood actors and comedians Jean Elie, André, and English were   
   stopped by the agents on a jet bridge of separate ATL to LAX flights   
   and searched their belongings in front of other passengers in 2021   
   and 2020.   
      
   Flights from Atlanta to Los Angeles are routinely monitored by these   
   officers, who call them “known drug trafficking routes.”   
      
   The suit was filed by André and English, who not only claimed the   
   searches were “neither random nor consensual,” they also included   
   Clayton County data that revealed 56 percent of jet bridge stops   
   involved Black passengers, and 68 percent were people of color.   
      
   The DEA stopped collecting race data 20 years ago. A federal judge   
   dismissed their lawsuit last month, arguing in part that the two men   
   should have realized they were free to walk away and not engage with   
   the officers in the jetway. The men are appealing the dismissal.   
      
   While the searches may not be popular, they’re certainly profitable.   
      
   Clayton County records and federal documents show that drug agents   
   find large amounts of cash on passengers at departing gates rather   
   than drugs. Agents have seized millions of dollars, and while   
   travelers aren’t arrested, their money is often administratively   
   forfeited.   
      
   Like most civil forfeiture cases, people who have their money taken   
   must prove in court that their money isn’t connected to drug   
   trafficking or other illegal activity. Seizures like these don’t   
   just happen at the Atlanta airport. They’ve taken place at airports   
   across the country.   
      
   https://news.yahoo.com/didn-t-state-federal-drug-203000407.html   
      
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