Dallas Fort Worth, TX Airport Cash Seizure Lawyer
The Number That Should Terrify You
Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our mission is to give you the reality of airport cash seizures at DFW - not the sanitized version law enforcement presents, not the "just cooperate and you'll be fine" fiction, but the actual truth about what happens when federal agents take your money without arresting you for anything.
Here is the number that should change everything you think you know: 90% of all cash seizures at U.S. airports result in zero arrests. Read that again. Nine out of ten times, the government takes someone's money and never charges them with a crime. Between 2022 and 2024, DEA agents seized more than $22 million from airport travelers across the country. The number of arrests? Fifty-seven. That means for every person they actually charged with a crime, they took money from roughly 386 people who were never accused of anything.
This is not about catching criminals. This is about taking money.
DFW International Airport is one of the busiest hubs for this kind of activity. According to the Institute for Justice, $58 million in cash was seized at DFW between 2000 and 2016 alone. That figure has only grown since then. And if you're reading this because agents just took your cash at DFW International or Dallas Love Field, understand something right now: the clock is already running against you. Every day you wait is a day closer to missing the deadlines that could determine whether you ever see that money again.
How "Consent" Gets Manufactured at the Gate
Heres the thing about those "voluntary" encounters at the airport gate. There trained to make you feel like you dont have a choice. Every word they say, every question they ask, every pause and stare - its all designed to create the illusion that you have to cooperate.
Picture what happens. Your sitting at the gate, waiting to board. Maybe your reading a book. Maybe your checking email. An agent approaches - sometimes DEA, sometimes Homeland Security Investigations, sometimes Customs and Border Protection. They look oficial. They carry badges. They might have a dog with them.
They ask to see your boarding pass. They ask where your traveling to. They ask why. What business do you have there? Whos waiting for you? How long have you been in Dallas? The questions keep coming. There friendly at first. Conversational even. Like there just making small talk. But your surrounded by other passengers watching, your flight is boarding soon, and your facing someone with a badge and a gun who seems very interested in you specificaly.
Then they ask: "Do you mind if we take a look in your bag?"
What there counting on is that you'll say yes. Becuase most people do. Most people dont know they can refuse. Most people dont realize that saying yes means they've just given up their Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. And once you say yes - once you "consent" - everything changes.
And heres were it gets worse. If you say yes - if you "consent" to the search - they bring in the drug dog. The dog walks around your bag. The handler watches closely, maybe gives a subtle cue, maybe shifts their weight. The dog sits. That's an "alert." That alert becomes "probable cause." And now they dont need your consent anymore.
What nobody tells you is that drug dogs are, in the words of one Institute for Justice attorney, "basicly just probable-cause machines that alert when there handlers want them to." Studies have shown dogs alert on handler cues - not actual drugs. The dog isnt detecting anything. The handler is manufacturing the justification they need. But that alert is enough to seize every dollar in your bag. It dosent matter if theres never been a drug anywhere near your money. Cash in general circulation is contaminated with drug residue - studies show upwards of 90% of all U.S. currency has traces of cocaine. The dog can "alert" on basicly any cash, and that alert is enough.
United States v. Your Money (Yes, Really)
This is the part that makes most peoples heads spin. The government dosent sue YOU. They sue your money.
The case caption will literaly read something like "United States v. $47,000 in U.S. Currency" or "State of Texas v. One 2019 Mercedes Benz." Your money becomes the defendant. Its a legal fiction that sounds absurd until you realize what it accomplishes: it removes you from the equation entirely. And becuase its a civil case - not a criminal one - you dont get the same rights you'd have if you were actualy charged with a crime.
In criminal court, your innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You get a public defender if you cant afford a lawyer. The prosecution has to prove you did something wrong. The burden of proof is on the state. The presumption is liberty.
In civil forfeiture? Its completly inverted. Your money is guilty until YOU prove its innocent. You dont get a public defender - you have to pay for your own attorney out of pocket. The government only has to show its "more likely then not" that your money was connected to crime. Thats called "preponderance of the evidence." Its a dramatically lower bar. Its literaly 50.1% certainty. A coin flip plus one percent, and they can keep your life savings.
Think about that. They took your money. They never charged you with anything. And now YOUR the one who has to prove - at your own expense - that your own dollars are innocent. The burden has shifted entirely to you. And if you cant afford to fight? If the legal fees exceed what was seized? They win by default.
Todd Spodek has spent years explaining this to clients who cant beleive what there hearing. "People come in thinking this is some kind of mistake," he says. "They think once they show there bank records and explain were the money came from, it'll all get sorted out. But thats the fantasy version. The reality is the system is designed to keep your money, not return it."
This isnt how justice is supposed to work. But its how civil forfeiture actualy works. And Texas law makes it even worse.
The Incentive Structure Behind Airport Seizures
Heres something most people never think about: why do agencies keep doing this? Why target airport travelers? Why is this practice so widespread?
The answer is simple. Follow the money.
Under Texas law, law enforcement agencies are allowed to retain a significant portion of the proceeds from forfeited property. In some cases, up to 100% of seized cash can go directly into the department's budget. Think about what that means. Theres a direct financial incentive to seize as much cash as possible. The more they take, the more they keep. Its not about crime. Its about revenue.
Federal forfeiture works similarely through something called equitable sharing. Local and state agencies can partner with federal agencies like DEA or HSI on forfeitures, and then split the proceeds. This creates a perverse incentive structure where agencies are rewarded for taking property, not for solving crimes or making arrests.
This is why the numbers are so skewed. Between 2022 and 2024, DEA seized $22 million at airports nationwide but only made 57 arrests. Thats not a law enforcement program. Thats a revenue program wearing a badge.
And DFW is one of the most active airports in the country for this kind of activity. Its a major hub. Lots of travelers. Lots of cash moving through. For agencies looking to boost their budgets, its a target-rich environment.
The 30-Day Deadline They're Banking On
OK so heres were the deadline trap comes in. And this is critical. Pay attention to this.
Under Texas law, if the state seized your property, they have 30 days to commence judicial forfeiture proceedings. But heres the kicker - if YOU want to fight back, you also have strict deadlines. Miss them, and you forfeit your right to contest. The money is gone permanantly. Not becuase you did anything wrong. Not becuase they proved a crime. Becuase you missed a filing deadline.
For federal seizures at DFW, the timeline works differently but the pressure is the same. Customs and Border Protection or HSI will give you a seizure notice. You have a window to file a "verified claim" contesting the seizure. The exact timeline depends on the circumstances - sometimes 30 days, sometimes 35 days from when notice was mailed. If you file that claim, the government has 90 days to either return your money or file a formal forfeiture complaint in federal court.
But heres what there counting on: most people dont file claims.
The government knows that fighting costs money. Hiring a lawyer costs money. And for alot of seizures - $5,000, $10,000, maybe even $15,000 - the legal fees might actualy exceed what was taken. So people do the math and walk away. They abandon there claim. And the agency keeps every penny.
According to one analysis, many travelers "dont file claims or otherwise contest the money seizures in court becuase the cost of a legal defense is often greater then the value of the money seized." The seized cash, in essence, becomes a cost of doing business.
Let that sink in. The system is literaly designed around the assumption that fighting back costs more then giving up.
Why Most People Never Fight Back
This is the uncomfortable truth nobody wants to admit: the economics work in the governments favor.
Say agents seized $12,000 from you at DFW. Thats a significant amount of money. Thats rent for months. Thats a used car. Thats your childrens tuition. Thats your emergency fund. But to get it back, your looking at:
- Attorney retainer: $5,000 to $10,000
- Potential litigation timeline: 12 to 18 months
- Additional legal fees if it goes to trial
- Expert witness costs if contested
- Time off work for court appearances
- Travel expenses for hearings
- No guarantee of success
Meanwhile, if you do nothing? The government keeps your $12,000. If you fight and win? You might spend $8,000 in legal fees to recover $12,000. You "won" but your net recovery is $4,000 and a year and a half of stress.
This is why, according to the Institute for Justice, the DEA seized over $4 billion in cash from people suspected of drug activity over one decade - but $3.2 billion of those seizures were never connected to any criminal charges. Thats 80% of all seizures with zero prosecution. The money was taken, kept, and spent - and nobody was ever convicted of anything.
The numbers tell the story. This isnt law enforcement. This is revenue generation with a law enforcement wrapper.
And it dosent stop. In November 2024, the Department of Justice actualy suspended the DEA's airport cash seizure program. An inspector general investigation found that DEA agents werent properly trained, werent documenting searches, and were creating "substantial risks" of "violating the legal rights of innocent travelers." The DOJ basicly admitted the program was unconstitutional as operated.
But guess what happened next?
The Department of Homeland Security quietly continued the exact same practice at the exact same airports. DHS task forces - Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, and local police working together - kept right on seizing cash from travelers at DFW and Love Field throughout 2025. Same tactic. Different agency. No interruption.
When one agency gets caught, another steps in. The machine keeps running. The revenue keeps flowing. And innocent travelers keep losing there money.
The Kermit Warren Story
Its easy to feel hopeless when you understand how the system works. But people do win. People do get there money back. The question is whether your going to fight or give up.
Consider Kermit Warren. DEA agents seized $28,000 from him at an airport gate. His life savings. The money he'd been saving to start a tow truck business. It was in a paper shopping bag becuase he didnt trust banks. He wasnt charged with any crime. He wasnt arrested. They just took his money and let him go.
Warren fought back. He got a lawyer. He contested the seizure. And he won every penny back.
"I knew I would get it back," Warren said later, "becuase I know one thing, I was innocent."
Thats the key. Innocence dosent automatically mean you get your money back. The system dosent presume innocence. But innocence combined with a fight - innocence combined with legal representation and a willingness to push back - that changes the equation entirely.
As Todd Spodek often explains to clients at Spodek Law Group, the government is betting you wont fight. There betting the cost and hassle will discourage you. There betting you'll walk away. When you refuse to walk away, when you force them to actualy prove there case in court, the dynamics shift. Suddenly they have to justify the seizure. Suddenly they have to explain why they took money from someone who was never charged with a crime. Suddenly the burden starts feeling heavier on them.
What Actualy Works (And What Dosent)
So what do you do if this happened to you? Heres what Spodek Law Group has learned from handling these cases over the years:
What dosent work:
- Explaining yourself to the agents at the airport (there not deciding anything - they already decided to take your money)
- Waiting to "see what happens" (every day that passes brings you closer to missing deadlines)
- Assuming itll work itself out (it wont - the default is they keep your money)
- Trying to handle it yourself (civil forfeiture law is extremly technical and full of procedural traps)
- Calling the agency that seized your money and asking them to reconsider (they have no incentive to give it back)
- Assuming your innocence will protect you (it wont without affirmative legal action)
What actualy works:
- Filing a verified claim immediately to contest the seizure
- Documenting the legitimate source of your funds (bank statements, tax returns, business records, sale contracts)
- Challenging the constitutionality of the search if "consent" was coerced
- Hiring an attorney who specializes in asset forfeiture - not just any criminal defense lawyer
- Understanding the specific procedural requirements for your type of seizure (state vs federal, which agency)
- Acting before deadlines expire
The key is acting fast. Not next week. Not when you "get around to it." Now. Becuase the government is counting on you being overwhelmed, confused, and too discouraged to fight.
At Spodek Law Group, we've seen people get every dollar back. We've seen clients who came to us thinking there situation was hopeless - thinking the money was gone forever - and we helped them recover it. The difference between getting your money back and losing it forever often comes down to one thing: whether you fight or whether you give up.
What Happens If You Do Nothing
Lets be very clear about what happens if you dont act.
If you miss the deadline to file a claim, the government keeps your money. No hearing. No argument. No chance to prove the money was legitimate. The deadline passes, and thats it. Its over. The agency that seized your cash deposits it into there budget and moves on to the next traveler.
If you filed a claim but dont follow through - if you miss subsequent deadlines, fail to respond to motions, or abandon the case midway - same result. They win by default. Your money is forfeited.
And heres the thing that really stings: the money they took from you might be spent on there operations. It might buy new equipment. It might fund more interdiction operations at DFW. It might pay for more agents to stop more travelers and take more cash. Your loss becomes there gain. And the cycle continues.
This is why the statistics are so lopsided. This is why 80% of seized funds never connect to criminal charges. Its not that all those people were criminals who got away with it. Its that the system is designed to make fighting back so expensive and difficult that most people dont bother.
The Clock Started When They Took Your Money
You dont have unlimited time here. Deadlines are running. The government has already started there process. The question is whether your going to start yours.
If agents seized cash from you at DFW International Airport or Dallas Love Field, understand what your actually facing:
- A system designed to take money, not catch criminals
- A legal framework where YOUR money is guilty until proven innocent
- Agencies that keep the proceeds of what they seize
- Deadlines that benefit the government if you miss them
- No public defender coming to help you
- A burden of proof thats been shifted entirely to you
- Legal fees that might exceed smaller seizures
- A process that can take 12 to 18 months
This is the reality. Not the fantasy version were everything gets sorted out becuase your innocent. The reality were 90% of seizures result in no arrests and 80% of seized money never connects to any criminal charge.
The system is working exactly as designed. It just wasnt designed for you.
Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196. We handle airport cash seizures and civil forfeiture cases. We know how these agencies operate at DFW. We know the deadlines, the procedures, the pressure tactics, and the ways to fight back effectively.
Your money shouldnt be held hostage becuase you exercised your right to travel with cash. The Constitution dosent require you to use credit cards. It dosent require you to justify why your carrying currency. But the forfeiture system acts like it does - unless you push back.
Let us help you get your money back. The consultation is free. The clock is running. Call now.
