S-1931.1 _______________________________________________
SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5882
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State of Washington 52nd Legislature 1991 Regular Session
By Senate Committee on Financial Institutions & Insurance (originally sponsored by Senators Pelz, McCaslin, Johnson, Madsen, Moore and Owen).
Read first time March 6, 1991.
AN ACT Relating to drug assets property forfeiture by criminals; adding new sections to chapter 43.10 RCW; creating a new section; and making an appropriation.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that drug asset forfeiture and criminal profiteering laws allow law enforcement officials and the courts to strip drug dealers and other successful criminals of the wealth they have acquired from their crimes and the assets they have used to facilitate those crimes. These laws are rarely used by prosecutors, however, because of the difficulty in identifying profiteering and the assets that criminals may have as a result of their crimes. It is the intent of the legislature to provide local law enforcement officials and state agencies with sufficient resources to seize the assets of criminals and the proceeds of their profiteering.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 43.10 RCW to read as follows:
The attorney general shall establish a narcotics and criminal profiteering unit. The unit shall: (1) Assist local law enforcement officials in the development of cases arising under the criminal profiteering laws with special emphasis on narcotics related cases; (2) assist local prosecutors in the litigation of criminal profiteering cases, or, at the request of a prosecutor's office, litigate such cases on its behalf; (3) conduct seminars and training sessions on prosecution of criminal profiteering cases and drug asset forfeiture cases; and (4) litigate drug asset forfeiture and criminal profiteering cases referred by state agencies.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The sum of four hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1992, from the general fund to the attorney general for the narcotics and criminal profiteering unit within the office of the attorney general as authorized by this act.