Answer Addiction

Tag: drug evidence

  • DEA Plans To Burn Tons Of Marijuana This Summer

    DEA Plans To Burn Tons Of Marijuana This Summer

    Tons of seized marijuana will go up in smoke in the coming months.

    The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) wants to burn tons of weed over the next six months, and is looking for the right contractor to help with the job. 

    According to a contracting notice, the agency wants to burn 1,000 pounds of marijuana an hour between March and September. The contract is for the “destruction by incineration of evidence located in the following cities in the state of Texas—McAllen, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Laredo, and Eagle Pass.”

    Despite putting out the notice, the DEA already has a partner in mind for the epic pot burn: Tucson Iron & Metal in Tucson, Arizona. 

    “Research has shown there is only one vendor in close proximity to the district and resident offices of McAllen, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Laredo, and Eagle Pass capable of providing the services necessary for this requirement,” the notice says. 

    That’s because the DEA has strict requirements for disposing of marijuana seized from the black market, according to Quartz. 

    “The integrity of the destruction process shall be such that the material to be destroyed cannot be redirected or retrieved once it is committed to destruction,” the notice reads. The cannabis must be destroyed “to a point where there are no detectable levels, as measured by standard analytical methods, of byproduct from the destruction process. DEA shall inspect the incinerator to ensure no drug residue remains.”

    In addition, there will be tight DEA regulation of the entire process, and a need to privacy. The DEA requires that the company that destroys the pot have a large fence on their premises, and drug test employees yearly. The DEA sends staff to oversee the burns, and also records them. 

    The agency “reserves the right to access the video feed as necessary to ensure the proper destruction of its drugs and safety of its representatives.”

    The Atlanta office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is also looking for a contractor to help dispose of drug evidence, including marijuana, meth, cocaine and more. 

    Recently the DEA put out a different type of contracting notice, asking for help finding a product that could assist agents in differentiating between hemp (which is legal federally) and psychoactive marijuana as we know it (which is not). The different species of cannabis plant can confuse DEA agents.

    In addition to destroying drug evidence, the DEA is also responsible for approving applications to grow marijuana for research. The agency has promised to make more permits available, but the process has been slow, further delaying marijuana research. 

    “The DEA continues to review applications for registration and registers the number of bulk manufacturers of a controlled substance that is necessary to produce an adequate and uninterrupted supply,” the agency wrote last year. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • McDonald’s Receipt Foils Detective's Drug Money Scheme

    McDonald’s Receipt Foils Detective's Drug Money Scheme

    The disgraced detective stole $40,000 in drug money that was waiting to be intercepted by a drug task force.

    A Louisville detective outed himself as a crooked cop with one critical error—paying for a $5 McDonald’s meal by credit card around the same time he lifted $40,000 of drug evidence.

    Detective Kyle Willett—a veteran of Louisville Metro Police who at the time was working at a UPS shipping hub as part of a task force to intercept drug activity in Louisville, Kentucky—stopped for a sweet tea and cheeseburger at McDonald’s and paid for the $4.76 meal with his credit card.

    Then, he went to work, illegally searched a package, and stole its contents—$40,000 in cash. Little did he know, a West Coast drug task force was waiting in Oakland, California for the same package to arrive, hoping to intercept the $40,000 of evidence that would help nab a drug trafficker.

    But the package wasn’t entirely empty. It didn’t contain the money, but it did contain some damning evidence that would lead authorities to Willett—the discarded bag that his McDonald’s meal came in, which he had for some reason stuffed inside the emptied package, receipt and all.

    Authorities were able to identify Willett via the last four digits of his credit card number from the receipt, and his white Tahoe was identified via surveillance footage in the McDonald’s parking lot at the time printed on the receipt.

    Authorities began investigating Willett and caught him the next time he stole cash from a package.

    The investigation affected not only Willett, but his entire task force. Upon scrutinizing the task force’s activity during the Willett investigation, authorities noticed that task force members were illegally searching packages without warrants, in their vehicles, or alone. And if they did found evidence, they would re-seal the package and request a search warrant, according to the Courier–Journal.

    Though it is a clear constitutional violation, according to legal experts, then-U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky John Kuhn decided to prosecute only Willett and not the other members of the task force.

    However, the decision was made to “clean house completely” within the task force to flush out any “systemic issues,” and every member has since been replaced.

    Willett resigned in October 2016 and pleaded guilty in federal court to theft from interstate shipment (a felony) for stealing more than $74,000 between January and August 2016.

    According to the Courier-Journal, most of the stolen cash was found in his home and car.

    Willett has already served five months in federal prison and five months of home detention. He remains on supervised probation for two years and is barred from owning a firearm.

    View the original article at thefix.com