“Or they know we’re breathing down their necks, and they’re going to get arrested next, so they come to us to make a deal,” says Dan O’Brien, a retired Chemung County Sheriff’s Office drug investigator. They’re backed into a corner and want to make a deal, like a shorter sentence for helping police catch a bigger fish. Usually the informants have been arrested, are behind bars or are about to get a long prison sentence, Drake adds. Where do these informants come from? Some are law-abiding citizens who want to help rid their community of drugs.īut those folks are rare, says Drake. With a drug investigation, the police have to set up the crime and need an informant to make the buy, says Rich. With a burglary, the crime has been committed, and police have evidence, like fingerprints.īut when it comes to drugs, police may suspect someone of selling them, but there’s no crime or evidence until police or an informant actually buys drugs from the dealer. “Other crimes, like burglaries, robberies and petit larcenies, are done to get money to buy drugs or for the drug dealers to exist.”ĭrug investigations are unique and more difficult than say, a burglary. Rich Jr., the Chemung County Public Advocate who has represented hundreds of drug defendants. “Drugs drive the criminal justice system,” says Richard W.
CI INFORMANT CRACK
That’s why informants were used in the August 2007 Operation Crack Hammer investigation in Elmira that resulted in the arrest of more than 20 drug dealers, says Elmira Police Chief Scott Drake.
They have the information, contacts and knowledge that police don’t have.” “They know and have dealt with the bad guys. “The CI’s have the inside track,” says Stewart Field, a retired New York State Police undercover drug investigator. That’s exactly what makes them one of the best tools to infiltrate the illegal drug trade. Problem is, most CI’s are bad guys, too, with criminal records. They can vouch for undercover investigators and get them inside the inner circles of criminal enterprises. Whatever they’re called, they can be a cop’s eyes and ears and calling cards. Those minnows are confidential informants - CI’s in police talk. That axiom is especially true in busting drug dealers.
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