Riverside sheriff's 'embarrassing' sting goes wrong, leaves 60 pounds of meth with trafficker

[Zorro]

Source: LA Times

An “embarrassing” Riverside County Sheriff’s Department sting operation gone wrong last week put 60 pounds of methamphetamine in the hands of a narcotics trafficker, the department has admitted.

Narcotics investigators with the department were hoping to identify drug traffickers Wednesday during an undercover operation, the Sheriff’s Department said. Deputies posing as wholesale drug sellers met with a suspect who wanted to buy 27 kilos of the powerful stimulant, they said.

The deputies sold the street drug to the suspect, who promptly drove away from the undercover law enforcement team, according to the department.

Other deputies from the gang task force tried to stop the suspect’s car, but the suspect fled, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-24/riverside-sheriffs-embarrassing-sting-operation-gone-wrong-leaves-60-pounds-of-meth-with-narco-trafficker

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Whoops!

[dalton99a]

1. Check the sheriff's bank account

[thenelm1]

3. Or a case of seeing too many TV police dramas...n/t

[Grokenstein]

4. Perhaps too many cop-buddy comedies?

This is like something out of that Running Scared sequel we never got.

[SeattleVet]

6. More likely they've been watching 'Police Squad' or 'Reno 911'

"Uh, Chief - we just handed 60 pounds of meth (from our evidence room?) over to some drug dealers. We're going to need a bigger budget so we can buy it all back, a gram at a time."

[C Moon]

2. That is strange.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Incompetence.

It needs to be easier to remove Sheriffs.

[NullTuples]

7. Perhaps Sheriff Chad Bianco is to busy being a Constitutional Sheriff

Regarding efforts to end prisoner forced labor:
“There is absolutely nothing that the Legislature will ever pass that is going to benefit public safety, really even benefit the public. Everything is to benefit the inmate.”
https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/crime_courts/2021/03/12/riverside-county-sheriff-chad-bianco-opposes-end-inmate-servitude/4655530001/


Regarding COVID safety mandates:
"Over the past couple of weeks, the idea of forced vaccination has caused much concern across the entire country,'' Bianco said in a statement released Monday. "I will not enforce the vaccine mandate on Sheriff's Department employees. As your sheriff, I have an obligation to guard your liberty and freedom.''
https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2021/09/13/riverside-county-sheriff-chad-bianco-i-not-enforce-vaccine-mandate/8326350002/
- and -
"Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, California, told county commissioners, “I refuse to make criminals out of business owners, single moms, and otherwise healthy individuals who are exercising their constitutional rights.” A video of his comments went viral, and on May 8 he appeared on “Fox & Friends,” a show that had already hosted a Michigan sheriff critical of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s orders."
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/18/the-rise-of-the-anti-lockdown-sheriffs


A member of Oath Keepers before he became Sheriff:
"Bianco, who was elected as Riverside County sheriff in 2018 after joining the department in 1993, was among more than 200 law enforcement officials included on a list of past Oath Keepers members that was made available to journalists by the whistleblower group Distributed Denial of Secrets."
https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/local/2021/10/05/riverside-county-sheriff-chad-bianco-paid-year-long-membership-oath-keepers-2014/6011361001/

[Mr.Bill]

8. Or maybe it happened

exactly as planned.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

9. Exactly as I was thinking ...

Which also means I'm not sure the dope in this case ... was even real.

They probably sold this dude fake shit, and then offloaded it some other narco in a legit deal ... which is likely the more profitable, and is now invisible. Double-dip on the $$$, then cover your tracks on the disposition of many keys of actual meth ... with some bullshit story about it being basically stolen. They probably charged this fake dude 10,000 for it (which they'll turn in), and sold the real shit for 100,000 cash (which they won't).

That's how I'd do it

But then ... I'm The Big Lebowski