By Bill Piper Director of National Affairs for Drug Policy Alliance For months Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele Leonhart has openly rebuked the drug policy reform policies of Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama with one embarrassing statement after another. Now she is picking a fight with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Y) and…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Joseph Arabit, the new head of the Houston Division of the DEA, arrives with a plethora of border experience that authorities hope will help crack down on drug cartel activity between the Texas-Mexico border, KHOU.com reports. Arabit previously was in charge of the DEA office in El Paso at a time of…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The DEA has released a man wrongly jailed for two weeks after he was mistook as a drug dealer, CBS Los Angeles reports. His girlfriend had been trying to tell authorities that Gerber Guzman’s identity had been stolen and he was not the man wanted for dealing drugs. But it wasn’t until…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The DEA carried out a nationwide crackdown on synthetic drugs early Wednesday, netting 150 arrests and at least $20 million in cash and assets, Time reports. This is the second phase of an operation dubbed “Project Synergy,” which began in December 2012 and went after products marketed as “spice,” “bath salts,” and…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com In her latest defiance of the Obama administration, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart is unwilling to support a bill to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for federal drug crimes, the Huffington Post reports. Leonhart has departed with the administration on reforms to drug policies heralded by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. “Having…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Benjamin William Mejias seemed to tell anyone who would listen that he was a DEA agent. He even posted photos of himself on Facebook wearing a DEA insignia and carrying guns and was so brazen that he repeated his story to an Orlando cop while wearing a DEA uniform, a badge and…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Arthur Lewis, the first African American acting deputy administrator of the DEA, rose to prominence after starting his career on the hardscrabble streets of Harlam as an undercover agent. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Lewis is credited with breaking down racial barriers and winning a legal battle in the 1970s to improve…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Is the DEA running out of ideas to reverse the seismic shift in attitudes about marijuana? DEA Chief Michele Leonhart told congressional members this week that pot can kill Fido, citing evidence that dogs have died after eating marijuana-infused food, the Huffington Post reports. “There was just an article last week, and…
