As the New York Times reported today, a scandal is beginning to erupt at the DEA regarding the after hours lives of its agents, bearing striking parallels to the prostitution scandal at the Secret Service. At least seven DEA agents have admitted to attending sex parties with prostitutes while they were stationed in Colombia.
Although the case sounds like deja vu, it has arguably more disturbing implications than the Secret Service case. According to the Colombian police officers who first notified the government of the parties, the prostitutes were apparently paid for by local drug cartels, who may also have been supplying the agents with guns and money. Perhaps just as disturbingly, the DEA agents involved only received two to ten day suspensions.
My Gut Reaction: Crap like this is the inevitable result of the War on Drugs.
Analysis below the fold...
Observers from groups such as the Drug Policy Alliance have noted the Drug War's tendency to breed corruption in law enforcement. As a report by the Alliance suggested, corruption is the natural outcome of such an unwinnable law enforcement effort:
It’s not hard to understand how the drug war breeds police corruption. The consensual nature of the drug trade makes it very hard to produce evidence against willing buyers and sellers. Fabricating evidence, lying on the stand, and conducting illegal searches have become routine police practices. Law- enforcement officers also have to deal with the fact that their efforts, no matter how diligent, are in many ways fruitless. After spending billions of taxpayer dollars on law-enforcement efforts and arresting millions of drug offenders, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available than ever. Day in and day out police officers see one arrested drug seller replaced by another. No matter how much illegal drugs are seized and confiscated, more pours in. Drug law enforcement is a Sisyphean task that rarely pays off. Exposed to suitcase after suitcase of illegal cash and drugs, many officers can’t resist helping themselves - and from there it’s a slippery slope to more corruption and abuse.
The temptation to engage in illegal searches or lie on the stand are just the tip of the iceberg. As the second half of the quote suggests, corruption extends to the drug cartels getting influence within law enforcement, undermining our justice system even further.
This makes it amusing to read in the NY Times report that congressmen looking into the DEA scandal are just shocked to learn of the corruption and its toleration by the DEA. In the end, these are the natural outcomes of the policies they have embraced.