Baltimore: TSA relied on fraudulently certified drug dog for "drug" money seizure

Faked drug-dog certification puts Baltimore drug-money forfeiture at risk

Early last year, the U.S. Supreme Court elevated the legal status of drug-detecting dogs, ruling that a police search can be presumed lawful if it is predicated on a positive alert by a well-trained dog with basic paperwork. Such training, though, is bunk if not accompanied by valid certification of the dog and its handler. Not only was it lacking in an ongoing drug-money forfeiture case in Maryland U.S. District Court, in which the government is seeking to keep $122,640 in cash seized last September from a passenger's luggage at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, but a fraudulent certification was produced by Maryland Transportation Authority Police (MTAP) and used by federal prosecutors, who sought to disguise and downplay the document's false provenance, according to a Baltimore attorney's recent filing in the case.

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The cash was seized last Sept. 12 from Jerry Lee Banks, Samantha Banks' husband, after a TSA inspector opened his unlocked, checked luggage and saw "a clear plastic vacuum sealed bag containing a large amount of U.S. Currency" that was sitting "on top of the clothing," wrapped in "black rubber bands," according to an affidavit signed by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task-force officer Kevin Davis, which was attached to the initial forfeiture filing. Another bundle was found "concealed inside a pair of sweat pants located in the bag," the affidavit continues, and still others were found "underneath more articles of clothing in the bag." Jerry Lee Banks' explanation for the money was that "he was in the real estate business and that some transactions are done in cash," the affidavit states.


After the cash was seized, MTAP K-9 officer Joseph Lambert had his drug-detecting dog, Falco, sniff it, and Falco gave it a positive alert for the presence of narcotics. This is not surprising, since forensic studies have shown the vast majority of bank notes in circulation are contaminated with narcotics, especially cocaine.​

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http://www.citypaper.com/blogs/the-...ey-forfeiture-at-risk-20140723,0,610347.story