Comment by AngryData

If some crack dealer buys a car or house using drug money, instead of just carrying cash, he can still have that illegally paid for goods taken away. Like if some guy buys an escalade with crack money the cops can take the escalade as it was paid with illegal gains. Or with cash if you have a ton of cash that the cash was proceeds from drug deals in the past that can't be proven but they shouldn't be able to keep the drug cash just because they couldn't prove every sale of drugs by the dealer. Like if they catch a dealer with wads of cash, obviously the cash likely was from selling more drugs.

Although obviously cops have gone way to far with seizing shit and very stupidly if the person's criminal charges are dropped (or some times not even filed) they don't automatically get their seized goods back.