The Drug Enforcement Administration paused its practice of seizing cash from airline travelers after an inspector general delivered a scorching denunciation of the program.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said the program may have illegally targeted minorities. He found at least one case where the DEA paid an airline employee to suggest targets for searches, then gave the employee a percentage of the cash seized.

In response, the Biden administration suspended the program on Nov. 12. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the issues that Mr. Horowitz raised were too severe to let the program continue without a full reevaluation.

“Consensual encounters pursuant to the program may not be resumed absent explicit direction from the deputy attorney general,” she wrote in a stern directive to the DEA.

The devastating report confirms the worst suspicions of civil liberty groups, who for years have complained about the DEA’s practice of having agents approach travelers inside airports demanding to go through their baggage.

Even if no drugs are found, the DEA can seize cash it deems suspect under Operation Jetway, forcing passengers to go through a difficult fight to recover the money.

Mr. Horowitz said the program crossed a number of lines.

“In our view, and as described in detail below, proceeding with such interdiction activities in the absence of critical controls, such as adequate policies, guidance, training and data collection, creates substantial risks that DEA special agents and task force officers will conduct these activities improperly; impose unwarranted burdens on, and violate the legal rights of, innocent travelers; imperil the department’s asset forfeiture and seizure activities; and waste law enforcement resources on ineffective interdiction actions,” he wrote.

His report torched the DEA for its use of confidential sources to suggest targets for search and seizure.

Auditors studied one instance where the DEA had an airline employee provide a list of targets based on people who bought tickets within 48 hours of a flight. The employee then took a kickback percentage of whatever the DEA seized.

The DEA paid that employee tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks over the years.

Mr. Horowitz’s investigators said the DEA’s record-keeping was so bad that they couldn’t determine how many encounters that employee was responsible for.

The investigators did review one instance that made national headlines where the source suggested five targets, and DEA agents swooped in. None had relevant criminal records, but the DEA figured the ticket purchase was enough suspicion to accost the travelers, Mr. Horowitz said.

One traveler resisted the search and was told he could either stay and face the search — missing his flight — or get on the plane without his bag. He remained and missed his flight.

Agents found no drugs or cash in the bag.

Mr. Horowitz didn’t identify the traveler, but the details jibe with a case that went viral this year. 

In that case, a man was flying from Cincinnati to New York City when a DEA agent demanded his bag be searched. The man said he didn’t consent to the search.

“I don’t care about your consent stuff,” the agent replied in a video the traveler captured.

When the traveler asked what the probable cause was — the constitutional standard for a search — the agent said he didn’t know if there was a crime involved, but “I have probable cause for a dog to walk up and smell your bag, so yes.”

“You might be the biggest jerk I’ve ever met out here, honestly,” the agent told the traveler.

A dog sniffed the bag and agents did the search but found no cash or drugs.

The Justice Department, in its official response to Mr. Horowitz, said the department and the DEA were already studying the consensual encounters program even before the inspector general’s emergency alert this month.

Civil liberty groups have complained that letting law enforcement agencies keep the proceeds of their seizures creates an incentive for overzealous actions like the DEA’s airport policy.

The Institute for Justice, which has a lawsuit pending against the DEA on behalf of three travelers, said the inspector general’s report “confirms what we’ve been saying for years.”

Dan Alban, an institute lawyer, urged Congress to pass legislation ending the search-and-seizure program.