The dealers at the highest levels are also facing decades in prison or life. Therefore, they have incentives to exaggerate the stature of their underlings. Furthermore, they will in many cases lie to implicate completely innocent people in order to produce more convictions for the prosecutors. As a result, it creates a chain reaction with more informants implicating other innocent people. There is no community that has been affected more by the informant system than the black community. Some of the issues with informants were brought to light by the DVD “Stop Snitching,” which included a cameo from NBA star Carmelo Anthony. Unfortunately, the snitching controversy has a clear element of witness intimidation. The DVD’s producer Rodney Bethea claimed it was not about “the little old lady
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They can receive a portion of proceeds from a drug bust, up to $500,000 or 25% whichever is less, depending upon the size of the seizure. The potential financial rewards are obvious and, consequently, snitching has become a way of life for many people in poor communities. Remarkably, Alex White, an informant for the city of Atlanta, sued the city for wrongful termination when a high profile case blew his cover and ended his $30,000 a year career as a drug informant. “I would say that the career path for a criminal informer is a lot more lucrative for that of an agent. Crime actually does pay,” says Michael Levine, retired DEA agent. It certainly seems that way as the DEA paid $26.2 million to criminal informants in 2013. Sometimes the use of criminal informants is contradictory and perplexing. Sun Sentinel reported about a particularly effective and attractive female Latina criminal informant in Sunrise, FL who earned $806,640 over a five year period. To the surprise of many, Sunrise Police Department officials paid her exorbitant fees even though she was luring low level cocaine dealers from out of state into their
They can receive a portion of proceeds from a drug bust, up to $500,000 or 25% whichever is less, depending upon the size of the seizure. The potential financial rewards are obvious and, consequently, snitching has become a way of life for many people in poor communities. Remarkably, Alex White, an informant for the city of Atlanta, sued the city for wrongful termination when a high profile case blew his cover and ended his $30,000 a year career as a drug informant. “I would say that the career path for a criminal informer is a lot more lucrative for that of an agent. Crime actually does pay,” says Michael Levine, retired DEA agent. It certainly seems that way as the DEA paid $26.2 million to criminal informants in 2013. Sometimes the use of criminal informants is contradictory and perplexing. Sun Sentinel reported about a particularly effective and attractive female Latina criminal informant in Sunrise, FL who earned $806,640 over a five year period. To the surprise of many, Sunrise Police Department officials paid her exorbitant fees even though she was luring low level cocaine dealers from out of state into their