| Click on the clock to see the numbers add up |
| The number of drug arrests, imprisonments, and costs to pay for this insane policy increases every second. www.drugsense.org |
| The Drug fLaws.com analysis of the drug laws by dennis mcbride |
| The daily grind of drug war corruption continues. This week, we find crooked deputies in Tennessee, dope-planting cops in Pennsylvania, and big trouble for the federal government and some Customs agents in Texas. In Memphis, a former Shelby County sheriff's deputy pleaded guilty October 19 to two counts related to his robbery of a drug dealer in a Millington hotel room. Jodie Chambers, 39, admitted stealing drugs and cash, piling it in his squad car, and spending the proceeds. He left with $6,000, 12 pounds of marijuana and four ounces of cocaine. He gave an accomplice the drugs to sell, and they split the $8,000 profit, Parker said. What Chambers didn't know was that both his accomplice and the drug dealer were FBI informants. No word yet on sentencing, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported. Two days later, a federal grand jury in northeastern Pennsylvania indicted two police officers for planting drugs during raids last year. Jeremy Sommers, 28, formerly of the Lansford Police Department, and Michael Weaver, 35, formerly of the Coaldale Police Department were charged with planting drugs in at least two cases and then arresting people based on the bogus evidence. Sommers and Weaver are charged with conspiring to violate civil rights, conspiracy to obstruct the investigation, obstruction and lying to federal agents, the Associated Press reported. And the same day, in El Paso, Texas, the family of Luis Padilla filed suit against the US government, the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit in a shocking case previously noted in this space where Customs agents supervising a Mexican cartel drug informant allowed him to engage in criminal activity, including most spectacularly, the murders of at least 12 people -- some of which occurred while ICE agents were on the phone with the informant. Luis Padilla, a US citizen and El Paso resident, was the last of the victims. The lawsuit alleges that if Customs had pulled its informant when it first realized he was killing people, Padilla would be alive today. Padilla, the lawsuit says, was not involved in the drug trade, but was killed because he witnessed a cartel kidnapping. StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail drcnet@drcnet.org. DP - Flex Your Rights - IAL - Drug War Facts StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet) 1623 Connecticut Ave., NW, 3rd Floor, Washington DC 20009 Phone (202) 293-8340 Fax (202) 293-8344 drcnet@drcnet.org |
| Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories 10/29/04 |