Posted on 07/30/2012 6:11:01 PM PDT by Altariel
The phone rang before sunrise. It woke Craig Patty, owner of a tiny North Texas trucking company, to vexing news about Truck 793 - a big red semi supposedly getting repairs in Houston.
"Your driver was shot in your truck," said the caller, a business colleague. "Your truck was loaded with marijuana. He was shot eight times while sitting in the cab. Do you know anything about your driver hauling marijuana?"
"What did you say?" Patty recalled asking. "Could you please repeat that?"
The truck, it turned out, had been everywhere but in the repair shop.
Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty's knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers.
At least 17 hours before that early morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers - all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.
In the confusion of the attack in northwest Harris County, compounded by officers in the operation not all knowing each other, a Houston policeman shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff's deputy.
*****
"How am I a small businessman, father of three, American Joe from Texas supposed to make a claim against a federal agency that has conveniently shrouded itself behind a red, white and blue cloak of confidentiality and secrecy?"
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
You make a deal with the devil, you can expect to go to hell. Goodbye, Mr. Chapa.
The DEA is more dangerous to the average American than the thugs the DEA purports to fight.
sounds a lot like fast and furious. Lord the Keystone Kops would be moire efficient
Legalize drugs and end the war on the American people.
The WOD is more dangerous to the freedom of the average American than the drugs they claim to protect us from.
Pfft. Don’t you know that one uses one of the serf’s trucks? Why waste one’s own confiscated resources when the resources of the peasantry are available for one’s use?
< /sarc>
NEW Fast & Furious - DEA Edition!
And those clowns have guns. Unbelievable. Most of the police and federal agents I’ve seen should not be allowed to have a weapon with moving parts and cartridges. I can remember the 2nd LT.s that I recommended to be issued bricks rather than guns. These clowns seem to be in the same category.
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At least in this cop f**k up the cops injured themselves too. I wish they’d all just take themselves out in their stupid screwups. The downside is the taxpayers are on the hook.
I have been dragged to the realization our government is corrupt. How in the name of George Washington can a government agency use a business’s people and property without their explicit permission. This sounds patently illegal.
But nothing will happen to the DEA or agents because they are now “above the law”.
When I saw the movie “Leon, the Professional”, and it’s cruel amoral DEA agent, I thought things like that would never happen in real life. Guess what. We’re there.
Our government is corrupt. It is rotten to the core. The war on drugs has been a dismal failure, but it sure grows government and employes a lot of people.
“Our government is corrupt. It is rotten to the core. The war on drugs has been a dismal failure, but it sure grows government and employes a lot of people.”
Indeed. Unfortunately, the WOD still is broadly supported. I wonder how many more such small business owners will be affected before we decide to stop feeding the wolf in our midst?
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