Two-Tiered Justice: How DEA Agents Commit Egregious Acts with Zero Accountability
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed its employees to stay on the job despite internal investigations that found they had distributed drugs, lied to the authorities or committed other serious misconduct, newly disclosed records show.
Lawmakers expressed dismay this year that the drug agency had not fired agents who investigators found attended “sex parties” with prostitutes paid with drug cartel money while they were on assignment in Colombia.
Of the 50 employees the DEA’s Board of Professional Conduct recommended be fired following misconduct investigations opened since 2010, only 13 were actually terminated, the records show. And the drug agency was forced to take some of them back after a federal appeals board intervened.
In one case listed on an internal log, the review board recommended that an employee be fired for “distribution of drugs,” but a human resources official in charge of meting out discipline imposed a 14-day suspension instead. The log shows officials also opted not to fire employees who falsified official records, had an “improper association with a criminal element” or misused government vehicles, sometimes after drinking.
– From the USA Today article: DEA Agents Kept Jobs Despite Serious Misconduct
Nothing instills faith in American institutions like the increasingly obvious and oppressive two-tiered justice system. Forget punishment, this is a society so corrupt that the wealthiest and most connected players are actually rewarded for corruption, criminality and looting. The examples are endless, but no single act has been more blatant, perverse and destructive than the taxpayer bailout of Wall Street fraudsters in the 2008/09 period.
When the perpetrators are mere minions of the system as opposed to so-called “masters of the universe,” they have to settle for mere immunity from prosecution as opposed to trillions in taxpayer bailouts. No agency is more representative of this reality than the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA. Not only has the “war on drugs” been a barbaric, civil liberties destroying failure of epic proportions, but the agents themselves should actually be busting themselves for engaging in the exact behaviors they are purported warriors against.
Don’t believe me? Take the following examples from USA Today:
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed its employees to stay on the job despite internal investigations that found they had distributed drugs, lied to the authorities or committed other serious misconduct, newly disclosed records show.
Lawmakers expressed dismay this year that the drug agency had not fired agents who investigators found attended “sex parties” with prostitutes paid with drug cartel money while they were on assignment in Colombia. The Justice Department also opened an inquiry into whether the DEA is able to adequately detect and punish wrongdoing by its agents.
I covered that story earlier this year. See:
Government Report Finds DEA Agents Had “Sex Parties” With Prostitutes Hired By Drug Cartels
A one-off? Not quite…
Records from the DEA’s disciplinary files show that was hardly the only instance in which the DEA opted not to fire employees despite apparently serious misconduct.
Of the 50 employees the DEA’s Board of Professional Conduct recommended be fired following misconduct investigations opened since 2010, only 13 were actually terminated, the records show. And the drug agency was forced to take some of them back after a federal appeals board intervened.
In one case listed on an internal log, the review board recommended that an employee be fired for “distribution of drugs,” but a human resources official in charge of meting out discipline imposed a 14-day suspension instead. The log shows officials also opted not to fire employees who falsified official records, had an “improper association with a criminal element” or misused government vehicles, sometimes after drinking.
“If we conducted an investigation, and an employee actually got terminated, I was surprised,” said Carl Pike, a former DEA internal affairs investigator. “I was truly, truly surprised. Like, wow, the system actually got this guy.”
God Bless the Imperial Banana Republic:
The DEA has long faced criticism for how it handles misconduct by its 11,000 employees. This spring, the Justice Department said it had “serious concerns” about the discipline meted out to six agents who left a handcuffed college student in a holding cell for five days with no food or water.
Oh yeah, I covered that one too:
Another agent, Jeffrey Prather, was fired after admitting he let civilians use “DEA-issued fully automatic weapons” as part of a security training business he had set up, according to merit board records. The board also concluded that Prather, who it said established his own religion, had persuaded “vulnerable and struggling women” to have sex with him “by telling them they would be ‘healed’” if they did.
Where does the DEA even find these people?
Still another agent was fired after admitting that he crashed his government vehicle after a night of drinking and gambling in the Bahamas then repeatedly lied to his supervisors about it. In his defense, the agent told the merit board he was still “under the effects of the alcohol” when he lied to his supervisors in Miami 30 hours later.
So I guess now we know what it takes to actually get fired from the DEA. He probably works for the TSA now.
Of course, when they aren’t dealing drugs, torturing people or canoodling with drug cartel pros, the DEA can be found thieving from and spying on the American public. See:
This is How the Clowns at the DEA Screen for Drug Dealers on Amtrak
The DEA Strikes Again – Agents Seize Man’s Life Savings Under Civil Asset Forfeiture Without Charges
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