South Carolina County Ends Its Civil Forfeiture Blitz After 20 Years
Out-of-state drivers have one less thing to worry about when passing through Spartanburg County, South Carolina: For the first time in nearly 20 years, they can travel without fear of Operation Rolling Thunder, an annual law enforcement blitz along Interstate 85.
Former Sheriff Chuck Wright initiated the multiday crackdowns in 2006 and expanded them over the years to involve 11 law enforcement agencies. But the run is over. Wright resigned on May 23, 2025, amid a federal criminal investigation, and interim Sheriff Jeffery Stephens announced during his first news conference that the tradition will not continue.
This is good news. Operation Rolling Thunder was an unconstitutional search-and-seizure machine that subjected thousands of innocent people to pretextual, warrantless searches. Public records show that officers routinely pulled over vehicles on the flimsiest of excuses and then manufactured probable cause to check under seats, open trunks, and unzip suitcases.
During one encounter that led to a federal complaint, officers stopped a charter bus from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and treated every student on board like a criminal. Yet when the police rummaged through the luggage bay, they found nothing illegal—just travel supplies and a box of donuts.
Our public-interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, fought for 21 months and eventually sued for access to Operation Rolling Thunder records from 2022, the year of the Shaw incident. When we finally prevailed, we found that over 72 percent of vehicle searches produced nothing illegal.
Participating agencies cashed in anyway. When they discovered money, they assumed it was dirty and took it via civil forfeiture, a law enforcement maneuv
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