Since the War on Drugs began in earnest under Nixon and Reagan, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has ruined millions of lives for nonviolent, victimless behavior. The DEA’s drug crusade is not limited to the homeland either, as it also has sole responsibility for pursing international drug investigations.
After 9/11, among the many travesties of the Patriot Act was a little-known section that gave the DEA powerful new abilities, under the guise of “narco-terrorism.” The agency says that these new pursuits are promoting national security, and it uses the purported success to lobby Congress for more funding.
However, according to ProPublica, these narco-terrorism cases are merely staging threats, not stopping them. Many targets of the DEA have no actual involvement in terrorist groups and are the hapless victims of entrapment.
A federal court recently showed the reality of this when it threw out a conviction because the DEA relied on a known “fabricator.” This Afghan informant, identified during trial only as Qari, formed almost the entire basis of the DEA’s case against alleged narco-terrorist Haji Bagcho.
In a 24-page ruling, issued last Friday, Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle vacated the narco-terrorism count against Bagcho, saying “the government violated the defendant’s right to due process by failing to turn over favorable impeachment evidence.” She wrote, “Evidence that the DEA’s Kabul office was told that Qari had been deemed a liar by another government agency, yet it still elected to use him as a witness would serve to undermine the reliability of the government’s investigation and its sources.”
Qari was paid $45,000 by the DEA for acting as a confidential informant while the usual income in Afghanistan was less than $600. A previous court had already designated Qari a “fabricator and/or information peddler,” and that other agency mentioned in Huvelle’s ruling had deemed his information “unrealistic and sensational.”
The DEA pleaded ignorance in using Qari, saying its failure was due to “discrepancies in the spelling of Qari’s name.”
Only a month ago, ProPublica and the New Yorker “examined some 37 narco-terrorism cases highlighted by the DEA and found that a disturbing number of them also unraveled. In most of the cases, the only evidence of a link between drugs and terrorism entered into evidence was provided by the DEA, which used paid informants to lure targets into staged narco-terrorism conspiracies.”
The case of Harouna Touré and Idriss Abdelrahman provides another example. The DEA launched an elaborate scheme to entrap the two smugglers in a narco-terrorism plot, involving fabricated tales of thousands of FARC fighters ready to collaborate against the U.S. This was the first narco-terrorism case brought against al Qaida, and DEA was hoping to make a big show.
As the Malians’ case proceeded, however, its flaws became apparent. The defendants emerged as more hapless than hardened, childhood friends who believed that the DEA’s informants were going to make them rich. “They were lying to us. And we were lying to them,” Touré told me from prison. Judge Barbara Jones, who oversaw the final phases of the case, said, “There was no actual involvement by the defendants or the undercovers … in the activities of either al-Qaida or the FARC.” Another judge saw as many problems with the statute as with the merits of the case. “Congress has passed a law that attempts to bind the world,” he said to me.
These sting operations, better known as entrapment, are a favorite tool of law enforcement—from local police departments to the FBI to the DEA in Afghanistan. Besides being a waste of taxpayer money, they are a morally reprehensible way for the state to carry out its dirty drug war. Even judges are not buying it anymore.
Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com
Our whole government is nothing more than a pool of corruption. The American peoples money is wasted from one end to the other. The mob could do a better job of running the government.
I’ve always thought we’d do way better selecting our politicians at random. The ol’ grandma down the street could do more good than any politician/puppet.
Yes, yes, yes! But that would be real representative government now, wouldn’t it?
And Pelosi never meant to “drain the swamp” either.
If the judge didn’t throw the offenders in jail for their lies then he really didnt do anything now did he?
The Judge should fine this corrupt Agency for frivolous filing of a baseless suit and put some
of the a-holes in poky to teach them a lesson. Get rid of all this alphabet soup of do-nothing, incompetent, appointed bureaucrats and worthless Agencies gobbling off the public trough.
But isn’t this how they get their drugs to peddle?
The dea learned from the cia learned from the fbi learned from the nsa learned from the tsa learned from the dhs learned from the atf.
All 3 letter alphabet top down deceivers.
the beast is alive and insatiable – I have been sending good faith labor (taxes) for their odious debt.
government is the worst investment I have ever been swindled out of.
I’m ashamed of the so-called Judge.
The one who needs to SHAMMED is OBOOOOMASSS – the magnificent FARCE – who is the BIG CHEESE BEHIND THISWHOLE MESS . ////////////////////////////////////////////////
They should ALL be hung.
How can america pretend to fight a war on drugs while their soldiers protect the Afghan poppy fields and the CIA fund their covert operations off drug money…and the cops fund their operations from asset forfeiture?
Huh? How? I’d really like to know. And if you have the answer maybe you can throw in how they can fund isis and pretend to fight them while coming out strongly against those who actually are fighting them.
Because our government needs that money to fund their never ending wars and because when Israel says “jump”, the US says “how high?”
But then, you probably knew that.
On another comment section you played the role of police apologist, and here you’re an anti-semite. Are you a purveyor of disparate unpopular views, or are you just messing with me?
If it’s the latter, let me make it easy for you: late 40s, married, never been arrested, two undergrads but work a trade, I don’t vote, I don’t own a gun, Canadian. There could be a tiny CSIS file from joining a few protests in my 20s, but nothing beyond that. No debt, modest RRSP holdings.
I’m just trying to answer your question . Why are you calling me names? If you don’t like my answer, then tell me your views. I am not here to start a fight. But niether willI I be silenced just because I might have unpopular views. I believe all views should not only be heard but considered on their merits. Do you not agree?
It just seems like there’s a darker purpose behind throwing a non-sequitor regarding Israel at a question concerning drug money- especially as you had me pretty convinced on the other forum that your opinions were bought and paid for.
Otherwise, go ahead and have all the unpopular views you want.
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“God is the greatest power in the universe, because He is the source and sum of all powers in their highest mode of
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