The ACLU is suing the Drug Enforcement Administration on behalf of a truck driver who had $23,700 of his own money seized by DEA agents at a weigh station in New Mexico. Anastasio Prieto of El Paso gave a state police officer permission to search his truck to see if it contained “needles or cash in excess of $10,000.” Prieto told the officer he didn’t have any needles but did have a large amount of money since he does not like banks, and customarily carries his savings as cash.

Border Patrol agents used drug-sniffing dogs to search his truck, but found no evidence of illegal substances. Officers took his money regardless and turned it over to the DEA. Despite his objections, agents for the DEA photographed and fingerprinted Prieto without charging him for any crime. DEA agents told Prieto he could receive a notice of federal proceedings to permanently forfeit the money within 30 days, and that he’d need to prove it did not come from illegal drug sales in order to get it back.

The ACLU’s lawsuit states that the DEA violated Prieto’s right to be free of unlawful search and seizure by taking his money without probable cause and by fingerprinting and photographing him. It continues, “Mere possession of approximately $23,700 does not establish probable cause for a search or seizure.”

New Mexico’s ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson says that Prieto needs his money to pay bills and maintain his truck. “The government took Mr. Prieto’s money as surely as if he had been robbed on a street corner at night,” Simonson said. “In fact, being robbed might have been better. At least then the police would have treated him as the victim of a crime instead of as a perpetrator.”

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