Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

Ok so i have a question that has been bugging me all night, its about a show i've been watching recently called breaking bad. its about a local chemistry teacher becoming a drug lord producing high quantities of meth.

In the show a person gets arrested and his belonging are taking away, so they laugh and say all the things they will do with so called belongings. So i was wondering do they have the right to keep the money because the constitution states, nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. so would drugs and money taking from people have to be compensated. IN other words do the police have to give the same amount of money that they take from a victim. And then pay for the drugs on top of that?


Asked on 9/04/12, 8:37 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Fran Brochstein Attorney & Mediator

If you are asking if the police can "take" property in a drug bust without compensation the answer is yes.

There are many laws that state that you cannot benefit from a criminal enterprise and anything that comes from that criminal enterprise. So houses, vehicles, jewelry, bank accounts, etc. purchased with drug money are taken by the government. (That is why drug dealers try so hard to turn their dirty money into clean money by opening legitimate businesses so that it is hard to trace their clean money from the dirty money.) That is why banks have to report all bank deposits over $10,000 -- because of drug dealers -- over 30 years ago banks did not have to report deposits of any size & drug dealers would make huge daily deposits. Have you noticed the police driving SUV's and nice cars -- where do you think they get them -- drug busts!

The constitution is not involved since laws are enacted to clarify how our society runs. No his individual rights are not being taken away. It is in society's best interests to not have drug dealing be a profitable or legitimate enterprise. Drug dealing is a crime.

There are also many laws regarding conspiracy & gangs -- think "mafia" -- to make drug dealing unattractive.

Now I hope that you can sleep.

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Answered on 9/08/12, 10:22 am


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