Seized Drugs and Weapons

As part of its asset forfeiture operations, the Justice Department often seizes and stores evidence--including drugs and weapons--that is later used by federal prosecutors. In fiscal year 1998, the Justice Department's Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reported that its agents seized more than 275,000 kilograms of illegal drugs. Each of the four DEA laboratories and division offices GAO visited had physical safeguards in place that, if used effectively, could help control access to and use of drug and weapon evidence. However, GAO found instances of inadequate packaging of drug and weapon evidence and overcrowded drug vaults that could increase the risk of theft, misuse, and loss. Moreover, GAO found that some requirements, such as chemists' returning drug evidence to a vault within five working days after analysis and laboratories destroying drugs within 90 days of receiving authorization, were not always met. GAO also found weaknesses in DEA's accountability over drug and weapon evidence, including (1) incomplete and missing documentation, such as chain of custody documentation; (2) inaccurate recordkeeping of drug and weapon evidence; and (3) improper accounting for drug weights, including unverified and unexplained weight differences in drug exhibits. DEA's internal inspection teams also reported instances of missing documentation and improper recordkeeping in their reports covering inspections done from 1996 through 1998. In commenting on this report, DEA officials said that the problems GAO cited do not appear to be systemic in nature and affected areas in which redundant controls are in place to ensure the integrity of evidence at all times. GAO disagrees with DEA and identifies several even more severe issues plaguing all, or almost all, of the locations GAO visited and for which redundant controls did not exist to compensate for the deficiencies.

GAO noted that: (1) physical safeguards over drug and weapon evidence, which include adequate storage facilities and control procedures, are essential for guarding against theft, misuse, and loss of such evidence and securing it for federal prosecutors; (2) each of the four laboratories and division offices GAO visited had physical safeguards in place, that, if operated effectively, would help control access to and use of drug and weapon evidence; (3) however, GAO found instances of inadequate packaging of drug and weapon evidence and overcrowded drug vaults that could increase the potential for theft, misuse, and loss; (4) GAO found that certain requirements, such as chemists returning drug evidence to the vault within 5 working days after analysis and laboratories destroying drugs within 90 days of receiving authorization to destroy, were not always met; (5) similar issues were reported in the internal inspection reports provided to GAO by DEA that covered DEA inspections performed from March 1996 through August 1998; (6) drug and weapon evidence must also be accounted for completely, accurately, and promptly to help ensure that such evidence is not compromised for federal prosecution purposes and is protected against the risk of theft, misuse, or loss; (7) based on GAO's visits to four selected DEA laboratories and division offices, GAO found weaknesses related to DEA's accountability over drug and weapon evidence; (8) the weaknesses included: (a) incomplete and missing drug evidence documentation, including chain of custody documentation; (b) inaccurate recordkeeping of drug and weapon evidence; and (c) improper accounting for drug weights, including unverified and unexplained weight differences in drug exhibits; (9) DEA's internal inspection teams also reported instances of missing documentation and improper recordkeeping in their reports covering inspections performed from March 1996 through August 1998; and (10) notwithstanding these problems, DEA officials at the four laboratories and division offices GAO visited were able to locate each item selected for GAO's testing that was in storage in evidence vaults or warehouses, and for those items not in storage, DEA provided documentation supporting the current location or the status of the item.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: