Cops Keep 90% of What They Seize and Spend It on Clowns

Europol recently announced the seizure of 25 million euros in Bitcoin from cryptocurrency mixer Cryptomixer.io. Their press release celebrated international cooperation and disrupting criminal infrastructure. What it failed to mention was where that money is actually going. No victim restitution plan. No mention of returning funds to people who were allegedly defrauded. Just a government agency taking money and keeping it.

Civil asset forfeiture has become a multi-billion dollar revenue stream for law enforcement agencies worldwide. In the United States alone, the Department of Justice went from seizing $27 million in 1985 to $4.5 billion by 2014. The Institute for Justice documented $8.8 billion in equitable sharing payments between 2000 and 2019. Eighty percent of these seizures involve people who are never charged with a crime. The burden of proof shifts to the property owner, who must prove their innocence while the government holds their money.

Police departments spend forfeiture funds on tactical vehicles, military equipment, and questionable purchases including margarita machines, $600 coffee makers, and hiring clowns for community relations. Documented corruption cases include police chiefs using funds for prostitutes, sheriffs building personal vacation homes, and district attorneys living rent-free in seized properties for years.

The average seizure is $1,276 while legal fees to contest run $15,000 or more. Nine out of ten cases are resolved without judicial involvement because fighting back is financially impossible. Highway interdiction units target westbound traffic for cash rather than eastbound traffic for drugs. The system mathematically guarantees that victims cannot fight back, which is precisely the point.

ACLU, "Easy Money: Civil Asset Forfeiture Abuse by Police" - https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/easy-money-civil-asset-forfeiture-abuse-police

Europol, "Europol and Partners Shut Down Cryptomixer," March 2023 - https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/europol-and-partners-shut-down-cryptomixer

Cointelegraph, "What happens to seized cryptocurrency?" - https://cointelegraph.com/explained/what-happens-to-seized-cryptocurrency

Stand Together Trust, "Civil Asset Forfeiture - Statistics & Abuse" - https://standtogether.org/newsroom/constitutionally-limited-government/civil-asset-forfeiture-statistics-abuse-stand-together-trust

Institute for Justice, "Policing for Profit 3rd Edition" - https://ij.org/report/policing-for-profit-3/

Chicago Sun-Times, "Victims of wrongful asset seizures shouldn't get pinched by legal system" - https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2025/08/28/civil-forfeiture-abuse-legal-fees-brian-moore-cash-jacob-sullum

Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, "Civil Forfeiture" - https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/civil_forfeiture

Institute for Justice, "Policing for Profit" report - https://ij.org/report/policing-for-profit-3/

Washington Post, "Asset seizures fuel police spending" - https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/10/11/asset-seizures-fuel-police-spending/

SPLC, "Civil Asset Forfeiture: Unfair, Undemocratic, and Un-American" - https://www.splcenter.org/20171030/civil-asset-forfeiture-unfair-undemocratic-and-un-american

Cybernews, "The US Attorney's Office: $7.1M might be returned to crypto scheme victims" - https://cybernews.com/crypto/7-1m-returned-victims-crypto-powered-oil-gas-scheme/

Cointelegraph, "A life after crime: What happens to crypto seized in criminal investigations?" - https://cointelegraph.com/news/a-life-after-crime-what-happens-to-crypto-seized-in-criminal-investigations

TRM Labs, "Enhancing Law Enforcement's Role in Expanding the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" - https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/enhancing-law-enforcements-role-in-expanding-the-us-strategic-bitcoin-reserve

Campaign Legal Center, "Congressional Stock Trading and the STOCK Act" - https://campaignlegal.org/update/congressional-stock-trading-and-stock-act

NAACP, "Criminal Justice Fact Sheet" - https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet