'Didn't State Who He Was': Federal Drug Agents Seize Millions from Passengers at Atlanta Airport While Posing as Regular Travelers In Plainclothes In 'Cold Consent Encounters'

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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