Undercover Cops Make Millions Selling Cocaine
Posted by Michelle Moquin on October 29th, 2013
Good morning!
Sometimes on Tuesdays I post about finances. You could say today’s write covers that topic.
Since it is in your sunshine state, this one is for you Howie.
If you think that police officers are just thugs with guns…well, this write won’t change your mind.
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 operations and have been raking in millions of dollars in the process.
For years, the Sunrise, Fla., police have been conducting what are called “reverse stings.” Undercover police detectives play the role of cocaine dealers and try to lure in potential buyers who drive or fly in from all over the country with wads of cash. If the stings are successful, informants can receive large payouts and police can seize cash, cars and other non-monetary assets. The busts have pumped millions of dollars into local coffers.
The Sun Sentinel was the first to report the Sunrise Police’s lucrative sting operations after the newspaper conducted a six-month investigation into the department’s drug seizures.
“The police are not actually finding these drug dealers on their own but they rely on paid and unpaid informants to tell them about people that might be looking for cocaine, and it became obvious to us that the reason they are doing this is because of the money,” said Megan O’Matz, one of the reporters who broke the story.
Sunrise, Fla., is a bedroom community, home to one of the country’s biggest shopping centers and mile after mile of identical, coral-colored condos. But millions of dollars’ worth of undercover drug commerce has occurred in this unlikely setting.
Gus Borjas, a nurse by profession and a father of four from Homestead, Fla., got caught up in one of the Sunrise Police’s cocaine stings. Lured by a paid informant he had known for years who promised to repay an old debt, Borjas agreed to bring a satchel filled with $23,000 in cash to a parking lot and, when he got there, he walked straight into a trap, Borjas said.
Undercover video from the case shows a second paid informant aggressively drawing him into the action.
“In order for them to keep the money they have to make … it look like I’m buying the drugs, obviously, you know,” Borjas said.
Eventually, the female informant placed a kilo of cocaine in Borjas’ bag to establish possession.
Suddenly, Borjas was now a drug offender and facing a possible mandatory 15-year minimum sentence for narcotics trafficking.
“As soon as I got arrested, as soon as they– Just, everything clicked in my head,” he said. “‘Why this? Why that?’ They set me up.”
According to Miami attorney Alan Ross, who defended Borjas in court, the scale of the Sunrise Police cocaine stings seemed almost industrial.
“It’s a huge business,” Ross said. “It’s a multimillion dollar business. It’s been going on for years. It’s been a daily event in the city of Sunrise.”
Over the past two years, the police department has netted $5.8 million in seized money, according to the Sun-Sentinel. The money was used to purchase new equipment and to pay officers involved for overtime. Some officers even doubled their salary in overtime pay alone, and in Florida, the laws also permit police to seize non-monetary assets from suspects, the paper reported.
“They can take their cars, jewelry,” O’Matz said. “One fella told us a cop said, ‘Hey, I like the sunglasses you’re wearing,’ and snatched them, so there is a real profit motive for the police.”
Informants in these stings can also make a lot of money. According to Sunrise police reports, one informant not connected to Borjas’ case was paid a total of $800,000 over five years for bringing drug buyers into sting operations.
Sunrise Mayor Michael Ryan defended the practice and the police’s tactics, denying that the stings were about the money.
“I do dispute that was going on here was trying to do anything other than fighting crime,” he said. “They’re doing the best they can do, and it happens throughout all of law enforcement.”
When asked if the Sunrise Police seemed overzealous in trying to bring in potential drug dealers, Ryan called it an “unfair” allegation.
“There are occasions when errors are made. There are occasions when somebody goes too far and it doesn’t go perfect,” he said. “The reality is, hundreds of arrests were made, hundreds who pled. There were cases that were made, there were additional informants built up in further cooperation with the DEA and others. This was part of the operation to stop cocaine. It was an effort to stop cocaine and heroin from getting back to other communities and it worked.”
Ultimately, Borjas got his $23,000 back and the prosecutor gave him a plea deal on a solicitation to purchase cocaine charge, because the female informant may have gone too far.
“These people only get paid if the deal goes down,” Ross said. “Gus isn’t the one who pulled off his backpack and opened it up. The informant did. She takes his backpack off, she unzips it, she’s reaching in for the money. Gus isn’t the one who took the cocaine, she took a kilo of cocaine stuffed it in his backpack. ‘Here’s the backpack, go get arrested.’”
“It’s very unfair,” he said. “Why should you go to jail if you’re not a criminal? Why do they have to make up cases? Only criminals are supposed to go to jail, you know.”
Ryan said that since reporters have revealed informants’ identities and undercover locations, the reserve stings have stopped. He said the Sunrise Police Department will go back to what it always did — fighting crime in Sunrise.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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October 29th, 2013 at 10:58 am
I’m only shocked they aren’t doing that here in CA, we have the 2nd largest port in the world right here in Long Beach, point of entry for so much cocaine it’d make your head spin & we are losing other money big-time, the green drugs coming out of Humboldt county alone could put us right in the black ink (I know 19-21 yr olds making over a 100K a yr just driving it to LA, imagine if it got thrown back into the city/state money pool : )
- ZL
October 29th, 2013 at 1:52 pm
Michelle, Any large City with a good size Shipping Port has tremendous amounts of money being paid out to the very people who are hired to guard against illegal drug entry into this country — the Police or Homeland Security of some sort.
These people are human and there is just so much cash and drugs being shipped via our Ports of Entry that it is really difficult for many Police Agents to “Just Say No.”
I am talking about a yearly amount in the multi-Billion-Dollar range. Many people would sell their Mothers for millions of dollars to just turn their heads and keep their mouths shut. This can net you tons of cash. The demand is there and people in many countries want their drugs so entrepreneurs fill that demand by importing drugs from other countries and distributing them to all the channels until they reach the consumers who either have lots of money to blow on Blow or beg, borrow, steal and rob others. Many wind up selling their bodies for the money to purchase their fix for the day. This can take place in America or Europe . . . It doesn’t really matter . . . Tons of Drugs and tons of money are here to stay and the Fat Cats get Fatter on the misery of people who use their products.
Even Police are tempted to break laws to get drugs or the great amounts of cash that comes along with it when a bust is made.
Consumption of such illegal drugs as Heroin and Cocaine are constantly on the rise in this country and the entire world. For instance, Iran — A Muslim country — has been processing opium which comes from Afghanistan and other neighboring countries in the Middle East and is processed into powerful Heroin for many hundreds of years.
Do not think for one moment that they do not suffer the consequences for their role in worldwide Heroin Processing — They have the highest Heroin addiction in the entire world because they have been turning raw Opium into Heroin for hundreds of years or more. This has its drawbacks — A nation of young rich addicted Iranians who contribute to the Jihad the Muslims have with the Western world — Yet they have so much money they can not help themselves from traveling all over the world and buying all the gadgets and pleasures that only people with money can buy these days. Large sums of cash can make a supposedly religious population leave their Homeland and become educated by living in the West for a number of years and then returning home with worldly knowledge and education to use against their enemies — usually Christians and Jews. They can now blow up their enemies with the money they made dealing in the Heroin Trade and the knowledge and connections they made during their educational years.
I have much more to say but would love to hear other people’s opinions on this topic.
HOWIE
October 29th, 2013 at 4:31 pm
Wow, Howie, you nailed it. The education and the ji-had, all of it…
Many who want to know why we are so entrenched in these regions, think about it it’s not just oil, it’s the opium/heroin trade. There’s no war on drugs, cartels and cops/DEA and all other federale types all in on the action, for money/power/sex…those 3 make the world go ’round…
- ZL
October 29th, 2013 at 4:32 pm
I was thinking local on my first comment, thank you for going global with yours, Howie. – ZL
October 30th, 2013 at 10:08 am
Sabri, #3 Yesterday, Oct. 28:
NO WOMAN — NO DRIVE:
Your YouTube parody of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” was funny and sad at the same time.
A group of Saudi men in their twenties sang a parody which made it sound as if being a Woman Muslim was a privilege and they should feel important to be born a Woman who worships Allah.
They get to be driven around (in the back seat) instead of having to drive themselves; “So put your car keys away.”
The entire song was two sided — It showed the Arab Man’s point of view and immediately made it sound pleasant for the Arab Woman — even though these rules are imposed on Middle Eastern Women. They do not have the right to choose. It is the Man’s way or no way. These rules are imposed on Women — They have no choice, unless some Women enjoy life in Jail or being beaten by the men in their families for their transgressions which are just everyday occurrences in countries where Woman have some semblance of freedom.
HOWIE
November 1st, 2013 at 10:28 pm
So glad to see you back Howie.
November 1st, 2013 at 10:29 pm
My brother is a cop and he says if weed is made legal many cops will lose their retirement nest eggs. They make tons of money working with drug dealers.
November 1st, 2013 at 10:43 pm
Howie, you are correct about the high rate of drug addiction in Iran. So many college mates of mine are hooked on drugs it is terrifying.
November 1st, 2013 at 10:45 pm
Howie, I have many friends that work with drug agents from many countries. It is a joke to them. They are getting so rich off of drugs.