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Asset forfeiture or asset seizure is a form of confiscation of assets by the authorities. In the United States, it is a type of criminal-justice financial obligation . It typically applies to the alleged proceeds or instruments of crime.
Contraband (from Medieval French contrebande "smuggling") [1] is any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It comprises goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes of the legislator—termed contraband in se —and forbidden.
Normally both civil and criminal forfeiture require involvement by the judiciary; however, there is a variant of civil forfeiture called administrative forfeiture, which is essentially a civil forfeiture that does not require involvement by the judiciary, which derives its powers from the Tariff Act of 1930, and empowers police to seize banned ...
Proponents of civil asset forfeiture argue it is necessary to fight large criminal enterprises, alleging that seizing criminals’ assets makes it harder for them to continue their illegal operations.
As a punishment, it differs from a fine in that it is not primarily meant to match the crime but rather reattributes the criminal's ill-gotten spoils (often as a complement to the actual punishment for the crime itself; still common with various kinds of contraband, such as protected living organisms) to the community or even aims to rob them of their socio-economic status, in the extreme case ...
Contraband was a term commonly used in the US military during the American Civil War to describe a new status for certain people who escaped slavery or those who affiliated with Union forces. In August 1861, the Union Army and the US Congress determined that the US would no longer return people who escaped slavery who went to Union lines, but ...
Under civil asset forfeiture laws, police can seize cash and property suspected of being connected to illegal activity, even if the owner is not charged with a crime.
Florida law enforcement observed Tyvessel White use his car to deliver cocaine on three occasions between July and August 1993. Therefore, they found probable cause to subject his vehicle to forfeiture under the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act.