The DEA has been able to secretly spy on individuals in the United States who purchased money counters as part of a recent controversial surveillance program, despite the fact that majority of those who purchased a money counter were never found to be connected to any criminal or drug related activities.

According to an audit by the Department of Justice, that was seeking to look into the DEA's use of administrative subpoenas that were used to collect or exploit bulk data, the DEA collected tens of thousands of records by spying on Americans, between the years of 2008 to 2014. Although they collected thousands of records, it's reported that only 131 arrests had been made and it isn't clear how many of those arrests eventually turned into convictions.

By using bulk purchaser data they were able to seize millions of dollars in real estate, vehicles, firearms, cash, and thousands of pounds of cannabis and cocaine.

However, according to the Inspector General, it was determined that the DEA had routinely given out administrative subpoenas without any court oversight, to different companies that sold cash counters, and those subpoenas were also allegedly unrelated to a specific drug trafficking target or investigation.

Their massive surveillance operation wasn't legal...

It was determined that the DEA failed to conduct a comprehensive legal analysis before they ventured to initiate their widespread investigation, that would result in collecting tens of thousands of records on individuals in the United States. What good are legal boundaries if the institutions tasked with enforcing them aren't going to respect and uphold those boundaries? It brings the entire system into disrepute and erodes trust.

Their attempt to use information about who was buying cash counters to try and find out who might be a drug criminal proved confusing to say the least, with various offices allegedly complaining that they didn't have time to review all of the records coming in or that the leads were too poor, or they didn't understand exactly what made some leads more important than others etc. It sounds a lot like a fishing expedition with innocent people unjustly having their liberty violated in the name of cracking down on arguably victimless crimes.

For now, the DEA and Justice Department both insist that they don't have any plans to continue with this sort of widespread surveillance and bulk collection programs, though keep in mind the DEA was alleged to have actively worked to keep their past surveillance program a secret, as have various other government agencies. And the Inspector General has confirmed that there is nothing standing in the way that might prevent those organizations from launching such a controversial surveillance program again in the future.

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