GOVERNMENT INFORMANT - 101
HOW TO BE A GOVERNMENT INFORMANT
(It is very lucrative.)
By Gene "Chip" Tatum
Drug traffickers have found a well-paying, part-time job with
an excellent benefit plan, especially if the informant is cooperating
with the authorities in Louisiana where the state and feds share the
loot with the informant. But an informant need not restrict their
activities to a particular state. The benefit plan is where the
informant really rakes it in. Not only does the drug trafficker feel
as if he or she is helping America in its fight against drugs, but he
or she also takes on the aura of a government law enforcement
officer, mistakenly thinking that he or she can do whatever he/she
pleases, because they are protected by the feds.
It is important for us to remember who this informant is: he is
a drug trafficker first and foremost, and drug traffickers exist for
lots of quick and easy money. He knows or recognizes no bounds, and
the world is his for the taking. Drug traffickers/informants
actually create a liability for the Department of Justice and other
law enforcement agencies. Although the drugtrafficker/
confidential informant ("DTCI") is responsible for the high
conviction rate, recent studies show that many of those convictions
are questionable. And the questionable convictions are what is
causing the Department of Justice to re-think their DTCI program.
The problem lies in the profound lack of moral turpitude
exhibited by the DTCI. The successful DTCI will adapt a dual
personality. One personality, the public persona, is contrite and
makes a visual effort to enhance his or her position in the
community. This persona performs well on the witness stand and is
adept at swaying a jury. The second personality, seldom seen in
public, is the true personality of the drug trafficker/confidential
informant. It is this personality which exhibits the deviant, deep-
seated behavior which controls the DTCI's thought processes. And
this persona is the very problem that the Department of Justice is
experiencing today. It is this persona that holds the misguided
thought process which dictates: "Say or do anything you need to in
order to accomplish your goals as long as it's in the best interest of
self." With this deviant behavior as the basis for their actions, no
one is safe from their (DTCI) deceit.
The DTCI sees everyone he or she meets as a source of income.
The vacationer, the businessman, or other traffickers (competition).
No citizen of the United States is safe from the deviant side of the
DTCI. He knows that the government agency will leave him to his
own affairs if he supplies a steady stream of information to the
government. But this stream is difficult to obtain if the DTCI is not
actively involved in his or her trade. So, the trafficking by the DTCI
continues. This affords the DTCI to cut his or her competition
which, in my book, is great. But if the DTCI is unable to perform
with actual trafficking operations, he or she turns desperate and
then the "anything goes" behavior is paramount. It is this particular
side of the DTCI deviant which weakens the Department of Justice
and outwardly threatens thousands of American citizens because if
the DTCI can't expose a drug transaction, he will create such an
event using unsuspecting American citizens.
The following is an example of this behavior which is creating
havoc in thousands of American families:
THE DEVIANT DTCI NETWORK
A drug trafficker, in order to both save his bacon
and ensure that his trafficking organization remains
safe, will contact the federal government and offer his
or her services. If accepted by the government, the drug
trafficker then utilizes a portion of his/her trafficking
network as an informant network. This is how it works:
A drug trafficker (for this example we will use the
name Billy Bob Bottoms) sees the end to his lucrative
trafficking business in sight. To save his business he
has worked so hard to build, the drug trafficker contacts
the U.S. government (for this example, we will use the
U.S. Customs). Customs puts the drug trafficker on a
contract with the U.S. Attorney to debrief the drug
trafficker and train him or her in courtroom procedure:
i.e. what to say and what not to say. They further
explain the need for a two-tier system of informants.
This two-tier system ensures that the U.S. government
does not make direct payments to the informant who
testifies. This enables the informant, when on the
witness stand, to testify to the jury that he has not
received any remuneration from the government for his
testimony in this particular case. For this example we
will use the name Ellis McKinzie, who lives in La Ceiba,
Honduras, as the second tier of the DTCI network.
Now that the drug trafficker has been trained and
has his network in place the work begins. The drug
trafficker contacts his tier-two man and puts him on
notice that the network needs a bust to stay clear of the
feds. The tier-two man, who will be the informant
testifying in the trial, begins looking for a victim.
He finds his victim in a nightclub: an American
couple visiting Honduras in search of an investment
opportunity. The informant befriends the couple,
showing them the ropes and introducing them to various
government officials in Honduras, who are actually
seeking U.S. investors. The informant gains the couple's
trust and tells them of his desire to communicate with
them after their return to the States. The unsuspecting
couple give the informant their telephone number and
address, hoping to hear from their new friend. The
informant passes this on to his boss, the drug trafficker
in the States, who, in turn, passes the information on to
Customs, who, in turn, passes it on to the U.S. Attorney's
office.
The informant waits a couple of weeks and then
telephones his victims. He speaks in code to them,
explaining that he has something special for them and
that he would UPS it to them. The victims, not having a
clue what it is, accept the offer from the informant and
give specific mailing instructions. But the informant
convinces the couple to open a special box at someplace
like Mail Boxes, Etc. for this privileged package of
information. The couple agree, thinking that they are
getting some privileged information, perhaps an inside-
track on investing in Honduras. The victims set up the
new box and contact their friend in Honduras with the
address. Little did they know that the conversations
were recorded by the U.S. Attorney's office.
The informant then boxes five kilos of cocaine and
sends it UPS to the new box number provided by the
unsuspecting couple. When they go to retrieve whatever
their new friend from Honduras has sent them, they are
met by U.S. Customs agents and are arrested for drug
trafficking. All of their assets, including their bank
accounts, vehicles, and home are seized by the U.S.
Attorney's office. The informant from Honduras is
deposed by the U.S. Attorney and a copy is given to the
couple's attorney. The attorney reads what the informant
will testify to and hears the tapes. He advises the
couple to plead guilty to the charge and go to prison for
five years instead of twenty years, which is what they
would receive if they went to trial.
U.S. Customs then sells the assets and gives a
portion to the drug trafficker, the DTCI, and also pays a
large fee to him or her. The drug trafficker, in turn, pays
his man in Honduras. This keeps the feds off their back
long enough for their own shipment of drugs to be
smuggled in and disbursed.
To summarize this example, Billy Bob Bottoms, a drug
trafficker, tells Ellis McKenzie, Bottoms' drug trafficking partner,
that they need a bust to appease the feds. McKenzie sets up an
innocent traveler. The bust is made by U.S. Customs office. They pay
Bottoms for his help. Bottoms pays McKenzie in case McKenzie has
to testify and he can honestly say that he received no money from
the government for his testimony. U.S. Customs is elated over the
bust. Now Bottoms has breathing room to smuggle in more dope,
which makes his cartel friends happy. Everyone wins! Except the
victim.
So, as seen by the example provided, drug busts are on the rise.
But there are more drugs than ever flowing into the United States.
As you can see, our system is not working. Not only is the
Department of Justice allowing more drugs than ever to flow into
our country, but it is putting innocent Americans behind bars in an
attempt to report impressive statistics to the American people.
And what of these innocents in prison? Their lives are ruined.
But many are hoping for justice from our appeals court which ties up
the justice system even more.
So, if you're a drug trafficker looking for an alternative, you
can call your local U.S. Attorney office and tell them that you have
just completed your course on "Government Informants - 101." They
will be more than happy to begin your debriefing |