DEA Undercover Op Warned Senators Years Ago About the Use Of Informants

[formerfed]

I was told that I should cross post this in the Drug Policy forum.

The paragraphs below are from a press release on the upcoming committee hearings on the feds use of informants. This is sparked by the most recent evidence of government misconduct in the drug case of Jerrell Bray, and at least 20 others from the Mansfield Ohio area who were arrested and convicted on the lies of an informant. Ive included the “Cleveland.com” link (Plain Dealer Newspaper) and the Press release. I have been watching this since the story broke about Mr. Bray.

Judge for yourself on the below information, but it is all true. I witnessed what occurred. Law Enforcement needs to completely stop, or revamp their use of informants.

Most recently, the feds dusted off the 1990 sworn testimony provided by one time undercover operative John J. Swint to Democratic Senator Harry Reid and a senate sub-committee that was looking into allegations that informants had more power then their agent handlers. Swint, who worked deep undercover for at least the DEA – ATF in the mid to late 1980’s blew the whistle on the agencies after he became convinced informants had more power and authority then the agents themselves.”

He also blew the whistle on government corruption and other scandals he witnessed during his tenure undercover.

“These informants did not need a gun or a badge, their only weapon was cops believed them.” In 1988, Swint, who volunteered to work undercover and use his Texas airplane business as a cover in the war on drugs became so disillusioned buy it all that he went to the media with accounts of how some federal agencies had set up and entrapped innocent people across the country on just an informants word.”

To prove his point, Swint intentionally concocted one of the largest weapons deals in ATF history between undercover agents and the Arian Nation White Supremacist group in Idaho. The suspects were allegedly shopping for machine-guns and hand held LAWW rockets to enhance their bank and armored car robberies. Agents from around the country converged into Florida in 1987 along with a SWAT team. After hundreds of man-hours and tens of thousands of dollars in preparation, the radical group never showed up. For at least the next 5 years the feds thought something had just spooked the white supremacists from doing the deal.

When asked how he came up with this scenario he said that a TV show about the Arian Nation gave him the idea. "it was never intended to go as far as it did. I thought I could shut it down when I proved my point. The last thing I wanted was to piss off the Arian Nation. They were actually an innocent victim in this. The ATF wanted to arrest them for conspiracy"


http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/01/drug_informants... (Cleveland Jan 2008)


http://www.prlog.org/10055793-former-dea-whistle-blower... (Press release March 9 2008)