{"id":6001,"date":"2013-10-11T07:32:38","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T11:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=6001"},"modified":"2013-10-11T07:34:02","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T11:34:02","slug":"corrupt-cocaine-cops-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/corrupt-cocaine-cops-in-florida.html","title":{"rendered":"Corrupt cocaine cops in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThis could never happen in Georgia, right?\r\nRight?\r\n

\r\nMatt Gutman, Erin Brady, Seni Tienabeso and Candace Smith wrote for abc News 9 October 2013,\r\n\r\nHow Undercover Cops in a Florida City Make Millions Selling Cocaine<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nPolice in a Southern Florida community outside of Fort Lauderdale\r\nhave been using a controversial tactic to conduct cocaine sting\r\noperations and have been raking in millions of dollars in the\r\nprocess.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nFor years, the Sunrise, Fla., police have been conducting what are\r\ncalled “reverse stings.” Undercover police detectives play the role\r\nof cocaine dealers and try to lure in potential buyers who drive or\r\nfly in from all over the country with wads of cash. If the stings\r\nare successful, informants can receive large payouts and police can\r\nseize cash, cars and other non-monetary assets. The busts have\r\npumped millions of dollars into local coffers.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe Sun Sentinal\r\nhas a handy\r\n\r\ninfographic<\/a>,\r\nand \r\nMegan O’Matz and John Maines wrote in\r\n\r\nHow Sunrise police make millions selling drugs<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nCash, cocaine and cars: Sunrise police invite out-of-town drug\r\nbuyers into the city to buy kilos of cocaine, then bust them and\r\nseize the tens of thousands of dollars they bring to the deals and\r\nthe cars they arrive in. Cars are towed to the Sunrise police\r\nforfeiture lot.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\nWhat if they were real drug dealers?\r\nBack to the abc News story:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nUndercover video from the case shows a second paid informant\r\naggressively drawing him into the action.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“In order for them to keep the money they have to make … it look\r\nlike I’m buying the drugs, obviously, you know,” Borjas said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nEventually, the female informant placed a kilo of cocaine in Borjas’\r\nbag to establish possession.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nSuddenly, Borjas was now a drug offender and facing a possible\r\nmandatory 15-year minimum sentence for narcotics trafficking.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“As soon as I got arrested, as soon as they— Just, everything\r\nclicked in my head,” he said. “‘Why this? Why that?’ They set me\r\nup.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAccording to Miami attorney Alan Ross, who defended Borjas in court,\r\nthe scale of the Sunrise Police cocaine stings seemed almost\r\nindustrial.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“It’s a huge business,” Ross said. “It’s a multimillion dollar\r\nbusiness. It’s been going on for years. It’s been a daily event in\r\nthe city of Sunrise.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nNothing like this would happen in any south Georgia city, right?\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“They can take their cars, jewelry,” O’Matz said. “One fella told us\r\na cop said, ‘Hey, I like the sunglasses you’re wearing,’ and\r\nsnatched them, so there is a real profit motive for the police.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nMaybe we should get on with ending the failed War on Drugs\r\nso no local law around here gets stung with the temptation to seize\r\npeople’s possessions.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This could never happen in Georgia, right? Right? Matt Gutman, Erin Brady, Seni Tienabeso and Candace Smith wrote for abc News 9 October 2013, How Undercover Cops in a Florida City Make Millions Selling Cocaine, Police in a Southern Florida community outside of Fort Lauderdale have been using a controversial tactic to conduct cocaine sting […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[70,203,20],"tags":[7047,1153,8728,8751,8701,8702,8710,12,7,7048,7045,7046,6,82],"class_list":["post-6001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-florida","category-law","tag-cocaine","tag-corruption","tag-ethics","tag-florida","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-seizure","tag-sting","tag-sunrise","tag-valdosta","tag-war-on-drugs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1yN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6001"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6003,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6001\/revisions\/6003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}