Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of airport cash seizure at Denver International Airport - not the sanitized version government agencies present, not the legal fiction that the system protects innocent people, but the actual truth about what happens when federal agents decide your money looks suspicious. If you found this page, something terrible has probably already happened. You were traveling with cash - maybe your business revenue, maybe savings for a real estate purchase, maybe money you simply prefer to keep outside the banking system - and now that money is gone. An agent handed you a receipt and some paperwork, and you're trying to figure out what just happened and whether you'll ever see that money again.
Here is the uncomfortable truth that changes everything: the government does not have to charge you with a crime to keep your cash. They do not sue YOU. They sue your MONEY. The legal caption reads something like "United States v. $47,000 in U.S. Currency." Your cash is the defendant. And in this system, your money is guilty until you prove it innocent. That is not how criminal law works. That is how civil asset forfeiture works. And if you do not understand this distinction right now, you will lose by default - the same way 95% of people lose.
What Actually Happens When Your Cash Gets Seized at Denver Airport
Denver International Airport sits at the intersection of multiple federal enforcement priorities. You have DEA task force officers. You have Customs and Border Protection agents. You have Homeland Security Investigations. You have the DIA airport police, who participate in federal task forces specifically because it gives them access to "equitable sharing" - a cut of the federal forfeiture proceeds. When any of these agencies decides your cash looks suspicious, they can seize it on the spot.
The seizure itself happens fast. Maybe it was at the TSA checkpoint when the X-ray flagged a stack of bills in your carry-on. TSA doesnt actually seize currency - thats not there job - but they call in federal agents who do. Maybe a drug-sniffing dog "alerted" on your luggage at the gate. Heres the thing about those dogs: studies show that 80% or more of U.S. currency in circulation has cocaine residue on it from passing through drug markets. The dog isnt detecting that YOUR money touched drugs. Its detecting that money in general has touched drugs. But that alert gives them probable cause.
Or maybe you were simply selected for a "consensual encounter" - an agent approaches you, starts asking questions, and before you know it your agreeing to let them search your bags because you have nothing to hide. What you dont realize is that everything you say is being documented. And in the world of civil forfeiture, your explanations dont help you. They become ammunition.
Once the money is seized, you get paperwork. A receipt. Some forms. Maybe a number to call. And then you leave the airport without your cash, confused and furious, trying to figure out what just happened.
The seizure can happen at security checkpoints, boarding gates, baggage claim, rental car facilities, even the airport parking lots. I've seen cases were people had cash seized after they'd already left the terminal - agents followed them to there car. The entire airport complex is a potential seizure zone. And Denver is one of the busiest airports in the country, which means high volume of travelers, high volume of cash, and high volume of seizures.
What most people dont realize is that theres nothing inherently illegal about traveling with cash. You can legaly carry any amount of currency on a domestic flight. The $10,000 reporting requirement applies to international travel (you have to file a FinCEN Form 105 declaring it). But domesticaly? No limit. No requirement. Yet agents treat large cash amounts as inherently suspicious - "indicative of drug trafficking" - even when your carrying money for completly legal purposes.
Why The Government Sues Your Money, Not You
This is were most people's understanding collapses completly. In criminal court, the government has to prove YOU committed a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. You have constitutional rights. You get a lawyer if you cant afford one. The burden of proof is on the prosecution.
Civil asset forfeiture operates on a totaly different set of rules. The government isnt accusing you of anything. There suing your property. The legal theory - and I know this sounds insane but its actualy the law - is that property can be "guilty" of being connected to illegal activity independant of whether its owner did anything wrong. Your cash can be forfeited even if your never charged, never arrested, never accused of a single crime.
And heres the part that makes defense lawyers' blood boil: the burden of proof flips. YOU have to prove your money is innocent. You have to demonstrate it came from legitimate sources. You have to provide documentation, bank records, tax returns, whatever it takes to convince the government that your own property should be returned to you.
Think about that for a second. Let that sink in. In America, in 2026, you can have your life savings taken at an airport and then be forced to PROVE that money wasn't connected to crime - even though nobody is claiming you committed one.
As Todd Spodek often explains to clients facing these situations, the psychology is what traps people. You think: "I'm innocent, so this will obviously get sorted out." But innocence isnt the issue. The issue is whether you meet there procedural requirements, file the right paperwork by the right deadlines, and provide documentation that satisfies prosecutors who have absolutly no incentive to give your money back.
The 30-Day Deadline That Destroys 95% of Cases
Look, I need you to understand something about how this system is designed. And yes, I mean designed - not accidently evolved, but deliberatly constructed to make recovery difficult.
When federal agents seize your cash, they send you a notice. That notice contains a deadline - typicaly 30 to 35 days - by which you must file a "verified claim" if you want to contest the seizure. Miss that deadline and you lose by default. Your money is forfeited through "administrative forfeiture," which means the seizing agency itself decides the forfeiture is valid. No judge. No jury. No courtroom. DEA decides if DEA was right to take your money. Customs decides if Customs was right. See the problem?
Heres the kicker: according to customs estimates, 95% of seized cash is forfeited to the government because people dont retain legal representation and fight back. Ninety-five percent. The government is counting on you to be confused, intimidated, and passive. They are counting on you to miss deadlines, file paperwork incorrectly, or simply give up.
What actualy happens in most cases: someone gets there cash seized, they're shocked, they maybe call the number on the receipt and try to "explain" where the money came from. Everything they say gets documented. Then they get busy with there life, or they assume it will work itself out, or they dont realize the deadline is real. Thirty days passes. Administrative forfeiture. Gone forever.
At Spodek Law Group, we've seen this pattern hundreds of times. People who could have fought and won - people with completly legitimate money - lose by default becuase they didnt understand the timeline. That 30-day deadline is not flexible. It is not forgiving. It is the trap that catches most people.
The Profit Motive Nobody Talks About
Now heres were it gets truly infuriating. Why does this system exist? Why is it designed to be so hostile to property owners? Follow the money.
Under federal civil forfeiture rules, the seizing agency KEEPS a substantial portion of what it takes. The Department of Justice operates the Assets Forfeiture Fund, which distributes proceeds back to participating agencies. Local police departments that help federal agencies with seizures get a cut through "equitable sharing." This creates a direct financial incentive to seize aggressively and return property reluctantly.
Between 2000 and 2016, the government seized at least $1.8 billion dollars from airport travelers. One point eight BILLION. From airports alone. And in 90% of those seizures, no arrest was ever made. This isnt crime fighting. Its revenue generation.
Look at the DEA's Transportation Interdiction Program numbers. Between 2022 and 2024, DEA agents seized more then $22 million in suspected drug proceeds at airports. During that same period, they arrested 57 people. Fifty-seven. Thats $386,000 seized for every single arrest. The seizures are completly disconnected from actual criminal prosecution.
A 2017 DOJ Inspector General report found that the DEA seized more than $4 billion in cash over the previous decade from people suspected of drug activity. But $3.2 billion of those seizures were never connected to any criminal charges. Three point two billion dollars taken from Americans without any criminal prosecution whatsoever.
When agencies keep what they seize, the incentive structure is obvious. Every dollar returned is a dollar the agency doesnt have. Every case they decline to fight is a case that might have funded equipment, overtime, or operations. Im not saying individual agents are corrupt. Im saying the system creates perverse incentives that work against property owners.
What DEA's Suspension Didnt Actually Change
In November 2024, something remarkable happened. The Department of Justice ordered the DEA to suspend its Transportation Interdiction Program after an Inspector General investigation found "significant issues" with how agents were conducting airport searches. The OIG found that agents werent properly documenting searches, werent adequatly trained, and were creating substantial risk of constitutional violations.
By January 2025, the DEA had officialy ended the program. Headlines declared victory for civil liberties. Reform advocates celebrated.
But heres the irony that should make you furious: DHS continued anyway. As of December 2025, task forces involving Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, and local police were still flagging suspicious passengers at airports and using drug-sniffing dogs to generate probable cause for searches and seizures. The DEA stopped, but the practice didnt.
The hydra has many heads. You cut off one, another keeps biting.
At Denver International Airport specificaly, this means you can still have your cash seized by CBP, by HSI, by airport police working with federal task forces. The constitutional concerns that shut down the DEA program havent been addressed for these other agencies. Your walking through the same airport, carrying the same cash, facing the same risks - just from different badges.
The suspension of the DEA program did NOT end airport cash seizures. It shifted them to different agencies with the same incentives and the same practices.
The Terrence Rolin Case: What "Winning" Actually Looks Like
Let me tell you about Terrence Rolin. Seventy-nine years old. Retired railroad engineer. His daughter was trying to fly with his life savings - $82,373 - to deposit it in a bank. DEA agents seized every penny at the Pittsburgh airport.
Rolin was never charged with a crime. Never accused of anything illegal. Just an elderly man whose daughter was helping him with his finances and had the misfortune of carrying cash through an airport.
How did he get his money back? The Institute for Justice took his case. It became one of the lead cases in there lawsuit against DEA and TSA airport forfeitures. Media covered it. Public pressure mounted. And THEN the DEA returned the money.
Not because the system worked. Because the system got exposed.
Without the Institute for Justice, without media attention, without becoming a poster case for civil forfeiture abuse, Terrence Rolin would have lost $82,373 - his entire life savings - despite being completly innocent.
The lesson is brutal: the system doesnt self-correct. It doesnt automatically recognize innocence. It takes aggressive legal action and sometimes public pressure to get legitimate money returned. And most people dont have a civil liberties organization ready to turn there case into a cause.
How to Actually Fight Back and Win
OK so your cash was seized at Denver airport and you found this page. What do you actualy do now?
First and most critical: you have approximately 30 days from when you recieve the seizure notice to file a verified claim contesting the forfeiture. This is not optional. This is not flexible. If you miss this deadline, you lose everything by default no matter how innocent you are or how legitimate your money was.
Second: do not try to handle this yourself by calling the number on the receipt and "explaining" the situation. Everything you say will be documented and potentially used against you. The government is not on your side in this process. They have your money and financial incentives to keep it.
Third: contact an experienced asset forfeiture attorney immedietly. At Spodek Law Group, we handle federal forfeiture cases and understand the procedural landmines that trap most people. A qualified attorney can:
- File the verified claim correctly and on time
- Demand early judicial intervention
- Force the government to either return the money or file a civil complaint within 90 days
- Challenge the legality of the search and seizure itself
- Present evidence of the legitimate source of your funds
- Negotiate with the Assistant U.S. Attorney handling the case
Fourth: start gathering documentation NOW. Bank statements. Tax returns. Business records. Sale receipts. Anything that proves where the money came from. The burden of proof is on you, so the more documentation you can provide, the stronger your position.
Fifth: understand the timeline. If you file a verified claim, the government has 90 days to either return the money or file a civil forfeiture complaint in federal court. If they file a complaint, your looking at civil litigation - discovery, motions, potentially trial. This process can take 12-18 months. Most cases settle before trial, but you need representation who knows how to leverage the governments weaknesses.
The Math That Should Change Your Mind
People hesitate to hire lawyers because of cost. I get it. But lets do the math.
Asset forfeiture attorneys typicaly work on contingency - 30 to 40 percent of recovered funds. That means you pay nothing upfront and only pay if money is recovered.
If you had $50,000 seized and you recover it with a lawyer, you get $30,000-$35,000 after fees.
If you try to handle it yourself, miss a deadline or file something incorrectly, you get zero.
If you do nothing and hope it works out, you get zero - because 95% of cases forfeit by default.
The math is clear. Even after attorney fees, recovery beats total loss every single time. And an experienced attorney knows which cases can settle quickly, which require litigation, and how to maximize your recovery while minimizing time and stress.
Theres also the surveillance video factor. Airports have cameras everywhere. Getting that footage early - before it gets deleted or overwritten - can be critical to showing that the search was improper, that you didnt actualy consent, that the agents conduct didnt match there report. Defense attorneys know to request this immedietly. By the time most people think about it, the footage is gone.
Why Spodek Law Group Handles These Cases
Todd Spodek and our team at Spodek Law Group have seen what happens to people who dont fight back. We've seen the devastation when someone loses there business revenue, there savings, there financial security - not because they did anything wrong but because they didnt understand a deadline or trusted the system to be fair.
We dont trust the system to be fair. We know how it actualy works. We know the incentives, the procedural traps, the constitutional weaknesses that can be exploited in your favor.
If your cash was seized at Denver International Airport - by DEA, by CBP, by HSI, by airport police, by any federal agent - you need to act now. Not next week. Not after you "try to sort it out yourself." Now.
The 30-day clock is already running. Every day you wait is a day closer to losing everything by default.
What Happens Next
The choice is yours but the timeline isnt. You can call us at 212-300-5196 for a confidential consultation about your case. We'll review the seizure paperwork, assess the strength of your claim, and explain exactly what needs to happen and when.
Or you can wait. You can hope the government does the right thing. You can trust a system that seized $1.8 billion from airport travelers and returned almost none of it without a fight.
The government had years to build this system. You have 30 days to navigate it.
Thats the asymmetry. Thats the trap. And thats why you need someone who understands the game before your time runs out.
