There has long been a controversy over the use of snitches and informants by police who are willing to say or do anything to avoid jail time for their own crimes or simply make some money framing another person. Many cases are built virtually entirely on such testimony of jailhouse confessions or stings using such unreliable individuals. To see just how easy it is to frame someone, look at the video below where an informant is caught planting drugs at a “smoke shop” to allow for the arrest of its owner, Donald Andrews Jr.
Police often target such shops selling merchandize that can be used for either legal or illegal uses. The arrest of Andrews (shown right in his mugshot) was treated as just another story by the local media until Andrews’ lawyer reviewed the security tapes at the business.
The video appears to show the informant planting the baggie of crack on the counter. It was enough to secure a seven year sentence for Andrews. The fact that it was placed so obviously would seem to indicate that the informant expected the police to be right behind him.
After the truth was revealed on the tape, the informant fled and remains on the run.
Of course, the sheriff blames the informant and not his officers in using such a person in these operations. Why use some low-life rather than an undercover officer?
What is missing is a video of the arrest or an idea of how fast the police entered the business after the informant’s departure. We also do not know if the officers gave him the drugs to use or what he was being offered in return for the sting operation. What is clear is that this informant was acting as an agent for these officers and ultimately for the police department.
Those details will likely come through a wrongful arrest lawsuit, hopefully.
Yet, the police (which is refusing to make a statement) have an obligation to explain themselves. Are the officers suspended pending investigation? Apparently not since the Sheriff has told media on the side that it was the informant’s fault alone. How can you reach that conclusion and not share more information with the public?
I also cannot find a story giving the name and picture of the informant and a warrant out for his arrest. I would think that such a warrant would be issued on the basis of this video alone.
Source:WNYT
Hi, everything is going perfectly here and ofcourse every one is sharing facts, that’s actually good, keep up writing.
Where’s the outrage? They cant get away with this!
yes but it happens all the time in Louisiana. especially in meth cases. you see ones that go 4 and 5 times in front of a judge and walk away with nothing but 5 yrs probation and all because they were a CI. but let someone who is struggling everyday but still managing to bearly make it by get into something like that and they put them away for 4 or more years. it is hard when the person right beside you in court who has 4 previous convictions and is going for their 5th gets 5 yrs probation and you get 6 yrs with DOC on what is your 1st. you would think that if they are there for their 3rd or more charge/conviction that they must not be a person who would tell the truth when it comes down to it. so why then are they legal in court. and not only that but here you don’t even get the chance to confront them or learn who they are so how are you going to cross examine an unknown? it’s just another way to make sure the money racket keeps going if you ask me. it for sure teaches people that if you are going to break the law don’t just do it once that will get you in jail do it many times and they let you go on probation. yes I reckon I know what has happened to our society we no longer have to answer for the wrongs that we have done. and if you don’ t have to suffer any kind of repercussion from it then what do you have to fear and make you act as you are supposed to?
Becky,
Well said and on the money.
This is the contact e-mail for the NYS AG.
http://www.ag.ny.gov/questions-comments-attorney-general-eric-t-schneiderman
People in upstate NYS know they cannot complain without chance of retribution. Perhaps someone from another locality can request a review of the case.
Folks.
Am a bit late in offering my observations here but succinctly: I don’t see how the police here could be not guilty of something.
1) What was the role of the informant to begin with? To just go in there and attempt to buy para or drugs? If it was drugs then the standard procedure everywhere is to search the informant with a fine toothed comb to be sure the informant isn’t planting drugs and you can testify with certainty that the only place the drugs purchased could have came from was the seller. Any drug officer worth his salt knows this. So if the CI had the drugs, where did they come from?
2) This looks like the drug equivalent of the “throwaway” gun, which is a gun that a corrupt LEO obtains from an untraceable source for the purpose of covering up a suspicious shooting resulting in death where the gun can be then tossed down next to the deceased along with a claim he attempted to use the throwaway against the officer causing the officer to shoot him. The reason I mention this is because in the throwaway gun case, the gun is put in a very obvious spot for others to discover. In this head shop’s case, it is hard for there to be a more obvious place to put it, one that can be easily discovered by those coming in later. Maybe they couldn’t get the head shop owner on a real felony so one was cooked up.
3) I’ll bet if the CI is discovered and brought in he is going to sing like a canary. I also find it suspicious why an arrest warrant wasn’t immediately sought.
This should be investigated by a state agency and not anybody on the same side of the state of this sheriff’s office.
There is no true war on drugs we all know and most acknowledge the corporation is the biggest dealers we have. every once in a while they allow say a arrest of maybe 50 kilos of cocaine to be photographed and logged as a drug bust while down the hangar from that 50 kilos they just bought in 300 kilos. how else are they paying for all their (activities)? seeing as how our taxes dont even pay for anything to do with our country…. having a phony war on drugs allows them to fill up their private prisons and rehabs.
1. dump the drugs in the inner cities
2. arrest those in the inner cities for having and using said drugs
3. give them the harshest sentences
4. or put them into rehab
either way they win!!!!!!!
cocaine is a rich mans high. they are not making their money off of the inner city
so the cia manufactured crack. and dumped it in the inner city until it began hitting the suburbs then it became a problem..
Nick, Gene, N rafflaw all have the idea of a ci down almost to a pat.
whats missing is it doesnt matter how little of a drug they catch you with if you dont know your rights. and your caught in their web.
in my case back in the mid 90’s i was told and i quote.. ” either give us the names and locations of bigger dealers or we will add more charges to your case.” of course they got pissed off when i laughed at them. little did they realize i sold them plaster of paris but hey the threats sounded good to them. oh and it wasnt only about drugs. i was asked what i knew about quite a few murders, robberies, drug deals on staten island. and when i informed them i didnt know any of the bs they were talking about. they amped up the rhetoric.
i received 12-18 months in a rehab program which is what i had been asking for long before playing dealer and selling undercover cops plaster of paris…
” I smell a rat. I wouldn’t be surprised if the police were in bed with the informant and provided him the drugs to plant,”
Police – n. armed force for protection and participation.
This isn’t some anomalous action on behalf of a rogue police/sheriff’s department.
These types of “arrests” occur daily across the US and are the norm.
The US government in the past 40 some-odd years has wasted in excess of one trillion US dollars on interdiction, eradication and incarceration in it’s unconstitutional and immoral war on drugs.
Just say no, to the war on drugs.
I smell a rat. I wouldn’t be surprised if the police were in bed with the informant and provided him the drugs to plant. If that is true, I am worried that the missing informant might be wearing cement overshoes in some nearby body of water. I hope I am wrong.
Re; Nick, I understand seizure is another topic. What I should have said more succinctly is that there also may be a profit motive to plant the drugs as well gaining an arrest.
Seizures are way too prevalent and the only recourse is to sue to reclaim your own property at your expense.
lujlp, Andrews was not convicted–presumably because the tape was reviewed. The reference in the story to the prison sentence concerns what could have been imposed under state law if he had been convicted.