Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Police don’t need a search warrant to install hidden surveillance cameras to spy on suspects, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, CNET reports. The case involved DEA agents installing multiple surveillance cameras without a warrant to uncover evidence of a marijuana growing operation. The DEA didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects against…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com An undersheriff in Illinois is accused of tipping off a business owner about a DEA investigation into the shipment of more than 60,000 pounds of marijuana, the Daily Herald reports. A sergeant at the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office leveled the accusations against Undersheriff Andrew Zinke, who is running for sheriff in 2014,…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A DEA agent left a loaded .45-caliber Glock handgun on the back of a toilet seat in the restroom of a crowded Denver International Airport, the Houston Chronicle reports. A traveler found the gun last week. The newspaper reports the gun was returned to an unidentified agent who apparently forgot the weapon….
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Supporters of marijuana rights attacked the DEA’s tight regulation of pot in a potentially landmark case that could change the drug’s classification, Reuters reports. Joseph Elford, lawyer for Americans for Safe Access, said the DEA has essentially ignored scientific research that suggests marijuana is safer than heroin and has medicinal value. “This…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com An Indiana man who posted vague but violent threats against DEA agents on Facebook is headed to trial after a judge last week rejected a free speech defense, CNET reports. In August 2011, Matthew Michael is accused of writing a series of angry posts about DEA agents. “War is near,” he wrote…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The good news: The crackdown on methamphetamine in the U.S. is working. The bad news: Mexican drug cartels are fulfilling the demand by pumping out cheap, potent meth from so-called “superlabs,” the Associated Press reports. “These are sophisticated, high-tech operations in Mexico that are operating with extreme precision,” said Jim Shroba, a…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com New York has had its share of big drug busts. But when it comes to methamphetamine, the state has never seen a bigger one than the 50 pounds seized from a boardinghouse in Westchester County, CBS New York reports. The DEA called it the biggest meth bust in New York State history….
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com ATF and the DEA don’t track how often informants are given authority to commit a crime, the USA Today reports. While the Justice Department imposes stringent limits on when and how informants for various federal agencies are allowed to break the law on the government’s behalf, an open-records request reveals that neither…
