They will take cars, houses, xboxs, literally anything that they say is the product of an illicit activity. They can do this under suspicion. There are numerous cases of the DAs saying there's insufficient evidence, so the owner is never charged with anything, but it's then incumbent on them (the "owner") to proove the negative (that it wasn't purchased with illegally attained funds) to get things back.
Also because you arent charged, you arent legally entitled to a lawyer from the state, so you gotta pay for that one yourself if you want to sue THEM to get YOUR stuff back.
-Edit: Specifically the cars bit is where they'd pull over Black or Hispanic guys in fancy SUVs or sportscars coming up from Miami and if there's cash in the car, just take everything under suspicion of drug money.
Situation-Busy t1_ivkim7m wrote
Reply to comment by JohnTM3 in TIL: That in 2019, some criminals were caught and 36 BTC was confiscated. The authorities valued the worth at €127,000 at the time and was sold 2 years later for €1.5 million. The criminals were returned €1.3 million due to the fact that the amount was expressed in Swedish Krona, not BTC by Wendals87
They will take cars, houses, xboxs, literally anything that they say is the product of an illicit activity. They can do this under suspicion. There are numerous cases of the DAs saying there's insufficient evidence, so the owner is never charged with anything, but it's then incumbent on them (the "owner") to proove the negative (that it wasn't purchased with illegally attained funds) to get things back.
Also because you arent charged, you arent legally entitled to a lawyer from the state, so you gotta pay for that one yourself if you want to sue THEM to get YOUR stuff back.
-Edit: Specifically the cars bit is where they'd pull over Black or Hispanic guys in fancy SUVs or sportscars coming up from Miami and if there's cash in the car, just take everything under suspicion of drug money.