Virginia ABC buys a $750,000 ‘state-of-the-art field support vehicle’ amid school budget shortfalls

Charlottesville Newsplex reports that Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) recently purchased a $750,000 “state-of-the-art field support vehicle“ with asset forfeiture funds. Whatever the wisdom of the purchase, it is curious that Virginia ABC has $750,000 in asset forfeiture funds to buy such a vehicle. In Virginia, forfeiture proceeds are constitutionally directed to Virginia’s Literary Fund unless the forfeitures somehow involve controlled substances—and controlled substance enforcement seemingly falls outside the purview of the ABC. [Virginia code does not include alcohol and tobacco as controlled substances.]

Perhaps connected, Virginia ABC apparently received three recent payments totaling slightly more than $753,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Fund. Such payments are frequently used to evade state laws directing forfeitures to education. The process, known as equitable sharing, permits state agencies (including those otherwise restricted from profiting on forfeitures) to give seizures to federal authorities. Federal authorities, in exchange, forfeit the property and give a percentage of the proceeds (frequently 80%) to the agency that brought the seizure.