Looks like the company behind the safe deposit boxes was pretty shady: https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgwwb/criminals-hid-guns-cash-drugs-in-iris-scanning-va

Looks like the company behind the safe deposit boxes was pretty shady: https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgwwb/criminals-hid-guns-cash-drugs-in-iris-scanning-vaults-in-a-strip-mall-feds-say https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgwwb/criminals-hid-guns-ca... Some quotes: >According to the DEA, the company encouraged drug dealers to stash controlled substances in its safe deposit boxes, advised its customers on how to avoid government scrutiny, used a nearby gold business to help its customers launder money, and facilitated drug deals inside the business. >To access the vaults, customers had to use an iris and hand print scanner. The keys they used to open their vaults were unmarked so the employees and law enforcement couldn’t know which key goes to which vault. "Since we don't know your name we can't provide information on your box to anyone,” Steven Gregory, prescient of U.S. Private Vaults, said in a 2012 commercial. >In retrospect, U.S. Private Vaults’ advertisements are telling. “I’ve heard horror stories about individuals who have lost everything when their bank safe deposit box was frozen due to court order or a tax lien,” an actor said in one commercial. “At U.S. Private Vaults, I never have to worry about anything like that. My personal information is never shared or stored in a big bank computer system.” >“Employees of defendant [U.S. Private Vaults] would conduct counter surveillance of the neighborhood and warn customers when they observed law enforcement,” the indictment said. If employees figured out the cops were on to them, “they would attempt to warn the customer, delay law enforcement, or even remove all but a nominal amount of cash from the box for the customer, to prevent law enforcement from discovering and seizing the bulk of the cash.” Given all of the above, I can see why the FBI thought it needed to seize everything. As long as they are giving stuff back to their rightful owners, I don't see that much of a problem.