Great news. This became SOP during the Reagan administration, if not mistaken. It was previously challenged all the way to the SCOTUS, (forget on what grounds double jeopardy, cruel and unusual punishment, etc.
), and upheld. Ridiculous.
When, as part of the War on Drugs, any assets seized could be turned over to the PD's whose officers made the bust, it became the impetus for otherwise good cops to go dirty. Many examples of that in my AO alone.
And if the person collared was eventually found innocent, it took an act of God and Congress to ever get their property back, if they ever got it back at all. Seldom they ever got it ALL back, and most times, the legal expenses of getting it back far outweighed the property's value.