Pubdate: Thu, 30 Jul 2015
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Greg Moran

INFORMANT OVERSIGHT LAX, SAYS DEA REPORT

Inspector General Finds Sensitive Program Run 'Without Rigorous Review'

The Drug Enforcement Administration doesn't follow established 
guidelines for handling confidential informants and has paid millions 
of dollars in dubious or unverified federal disability payment to 
informants and their families over the years.

Those are two of the findings in a report by the Department of 
Justice Inspector General into the drug agency's program for dealing 
with confidential informants. The report was based in part on the 
review of certain case files from San Diego that used confidential informants.

Overall, the report concluded there is a "lack of sufficient 
oversight" of how the agency runs the program for informants, who 
often play a critical role in drug investigations and arrests. It 
said the agency had employed 240 long-term informants - defined as 
informants who are used for six consecutive years or more - "without 
rigorous review" of what they were doing.

The report also found lax monitoring of informants who are allowed to 
break the law - a practice known as Otherwise Illegal Activity, or 
OIA. Justice Department rules allow informants to do things that 
would be illegal if they weren't working for the government.

Even with that leeway, the audit said the DEA policies were poor. It 
said auditors got different answers when asking DEA officials about 
the process they use to authorize illegal activities for informants, 
all of which added to the conclusion that the system was poorly 
monitored by the agency.

The report said it was difficult to even determine the extent of the 
program's weaknesses because of "numerous instances of 
uncooperativeness from the DEA." That included months-long delays 
producing information requested by investigators and efforts to 
prevent inspection of confidential source files. As a result, 
auditors were only able to conduct a "limited review" of the program.

That review included inspecting case files from both the San Diego 
and Chicago offices of the DEA, sites chosen at random. The 
investigators were given access to 17 case files, but the report did 
not break down what the cases were or how many were from San Diego.

The report said that in 2013-14, the agency paid out $1,034,000 in 
death and disability benefits to 17 informants or their dependents. 
But the total amount paid out isn't known largely because of what the 
audit said was "serious mismanagement and lack of oversight" of the 
payments by the DEA and Department of Labor, which makes the 
payments. The family of an informant who was killed in 1989 got $1.3 
million in payments themselves over the years.

Other claims that were approved were dubious or lacked verifiable 
information. In one example, an informant claimed to have been shot 
on the way to work, one day after being activated as a confidential 
informant. Another approved claim was for an informant said to have 
been killed overseas, but there were no witnesses to the death and a 
body was never recovered.

The report was released July 21 and made seven recommendations for 
reforming the program. They included instituting regular review of 
long-term informants, and bringing DEA policies in line with 
guidelines for use of informants used by other Justice Department 
agencies. In a formal written response the Justice Department said 
DEA agreed with all the suggestions - and said it had placed a 
moratorium on the any new claims for disability benefits from informants.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom