DEA Rejects Attempt To Loosen Federal Restrictions On Marijuana

[Rex]

23. When there own top folks quit and turn against then to the point of advocating how to hide drugs

if you just a working stiff...you know the agency itself must be worthless.

"DEA couldn't get any dope from Miguel (not his true name) not even a sample. So they charge the poor bastard with a no-dope Conspiracy did you ever hear of anything like that? A parking lot attendant on a no- dope Conspiracy? Then they bring in a DEA expert from Washington to testify that a true Class One doper doesn't give samples. You and I both know that's bullshit, don't we?"

His words flashed me back to an incident I described in The Big White Lie. It was July 4, 1980, and I was in a suite at the Buenos Aires Sheraton, sitting across a table from one of the biggest dopers alive, Hugo Hurtado Candia, as he handed me a one ounce sample of his merchandise ninety-nine percent pure cocaine as a prelude to a huge cocaine deal. The man was part of a cartel that was two weeks away from taking over his whole country.

The lawyer was right: it was pure bullshit, but it was the kind of bullshit I had always been aware of. There's enormous career pressure on street agents to make as many Class One cases as they can, for a simple reason: Federal agencies justify their budgets with statistical reports to Congress and Congress loves to see Class Ones. The agents with the highest percentage of Class Ones are the guys who get money awards and promotions. And over the years the professional rats, who originate more than 95 percent of all drug cases, had learned that selling a Class One to the government was worth a much bigger "reward" payment. A lot of them knew the DEA Agents Manual criteria for a One better than a lot of the agents."

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cjs13.htm