Warning: Avoid This Corrupt, Third-World Country At All Costs

Warning: Avoid This Corrupt, Third-World Country At All Costs | Zero Hedge:

Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog,
John Anderson, an American tourist from San Clemente, California, was driving down a poorly-maintained highway when he saw flashing lights in his rearview mirror.
After a brief exchange with the local police officer, Anderson was shocked when the cop started searching his vehicle.
Anderson had $25,180 in US dollar cash in the car, which by the way was not a crime according to the local laws.
When the cop saw it, he told Anderson that we would take it and threatened him with arrest if he protested.
Anderson couldn’t believe it. This is the sort of stuff you always hear about in these third world countries—corrupt cops and state robbery.
Ultimately Anderson gave in; the cop let him go and did not charge him with a crime, but took every last penny in the vehicle.
And for the last two years, Anderson has been trying to unsuccessfully fight it in the country’s Kangaroo court system.

Clearly we should all avoid going to such dangerously corrupt third world countries.

Except in this case, Anderson was in the United States of America. And he is far from being the only victim of this highway robbery known as Civil Asset Forfeiture.

Since 9/11, police forces in the Land of the Free made over 62,000 seizures without charging anyone with any crime, stealing $2.5 billion in cash alone.

The cost of taking legal action against the government is so high, that only about 17% of the victims actually challenged the seizures.

And even then, only 41% of those that challenged have been able to get their money back.

This means that the government has a better than 93% success rate in outright theft.