That's primarily what the law was designed for: as a deterrent to committing crimes and in an effort to make sure that no one was able, ultimately, to profit from their crimes (it started as an anti-organized crime statute, IIRC). In that respect, it's a good law. I mean, in the case of a guy with no reportable income riding around in an expensive car, unless he can show that someone paid for it with legitimate income and gave it to him as a gift, you have a pretty good idea that he got it as a result of criminal activity. Whether or not the activity should be criminal is another matter entirely and an issue for the legislature to address, not the courts and law enforcement. On a positive note, every dope dealer's dollar they use to buy stuff with is a taxpayer's dollar they don't use.

The cops/DAs can be overzealous in their application of the forfeiture laws, though. For example, if your dad bought you the car to go to college in and you were later arrested for selling dope while sitting in the car, seizing the automobile, absent other extenuating circumstances, would be a bit assholish (though I wouldn't have a problem with them making the dad come pick it up).

Either way, that's what the court hearing is for. The circuit judges in TuscCo are pretty straight shooters on that kind of stuff. They'll chew out a cop in a heartbeat for going over the top or not applying the statutes correctly when charging.

The more interesting part of the story is who rolled on Freitag and what else is in the pipeline? I park in that lot every day and know what the WANTF vehicles look like (neighbor used to be one). They don't "hang out" there as a matter of course.