DEA

Peter B. Collins Presents Journalist Yasha Levine

By Jay Stanley | ACLU | April 8, 2015 In 2011, for the 50th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s declaration of America’s “War on Drugs,” I wrote a roundup of some of the ways in which the War on Drugs has eroded privacy. Yesterday’s news about the DEA’s enormous program to collect Americans’ call records is […]

By Eileen O’Grady | CEPR Americas Blog | March 27, 2015 Plan Colombia has been on the lips of many U.S. officials lately, who tout the 15-year-old plan as a model to stabilize the country and promote human rights and transparency. This week, two new reports alleged sexual exploitation by U.S. security forces in Colombia, […]

By Bennett Stein & Jay Stanley | ACLU | January 26, 2015 The Drug Enforcement Administration has initiated a massive national license plate reader program with major civil liberties concerns but disclosed very few details, according to new DEA documents obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act. The DEA is currently operating […]

… But No One With the Power to Investigate Seems to Care
By Bill Conroy
At least $20 million went missing from money seizures by law enforcers, critical evidence was destroyed by a federal agency, a key informant was outed by a US prosecutor — contributing to her being kidnapped and nearly killed — and at the end of the day not a single narco-trafficker was prosecuted in this four-year-long DEA undercover operation gone awry.
Those revelations surfaced in a recently decided court case filed in the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington, DC.

Critics Argue Drug-War Money is Part of the Problem, Not the Solution
By Bill Conroy
Some 58,000 migrant children, mostly Central Americans, have made the treacherous journey to the U.S. southern border alone over the past 10 months, but actions being considered by U.S. officials to combat the problem with more military and drug-war aid to their countries, critics warn, may worsen the violence that provokes this unprecedented exodus.

US Attorney Dismisses Criminal Case Against Brazilian Informant
By Bill Conroy
The secrecy cloaking a corporate jet with a CIA-linked tail number that crash landed in Mexico in the fall of 2007 with a nearly four-ton load of cocaine onboard continues to unravel, one string at a time.

Diplomatic Security Agent’s Allegations Support Narco News Report That Victims Were Targeted for Assassination
By Bill Conroy
Barrio Azteca gang leader Arturo Gallegos Castrellon, also known as “Guero,” among other aliases, was sentenced to life in prison late last month after being convicted of orchestrating the murders of US Consulate worker Lesley A. Enriquez; her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs; and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, whose wife also worked at the consulate in Juarez.

NarcoNews: History & Court Pleadings Help to Connect the Dots Mainstream Media Is Missing
Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, the son of a powerful co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa narco-trafficking organization, has agreed to tell the US government everything he knows about his alleged partners in crime, their operations and enablers, US authorities announced earlier this week.

#Narconoia Update | EPN government orders Michoacan's vigilante groups to submit to federal authority and disarm; Sinaloa Cartel's ever-sophisticated smuggling tunnels; Sinaloa capo's son was "flipped" and is "cooperating" with U.S. agencies; Zetas boss pleads guilty; Gulf Cartel infighting erupts in Tamaulipas; narco-politics, and more