Chamblee54

The most recent edition of Criminal podcast is Episode 30: The Agreement (11.13.2015). The show is about DANIEL EGIPCIACO # 57385054.
Danny got a call at work one day. Someone wanted to meet him in a pizza joint. The plan was to rob a drug “stash house.” A few days later, the Confidential Informant (CI) called again, and said for Danny to meet him right away. When Danny showed up for the meeting, he was arrested. The whole thing was a set up.The drugs, and the stash house, never existed. When the case came to trial, Danny was charged with conspiracy to possess 10 kilos of cocaine. This figure was the imaginary figure quoted by the CI, and had a mandatory sentence.
USA Today had a feature about this scheme, ATF uses fake drugs, big bucks to snare suspects. There are hidden camera videos from Dayton OH, Woodridge IL, and Las Vegas NV. Another story is Reverse Drug Stings: The Latest Tool For Creating Criminals In The War On Drugs. Danny Egipciaco has set up a website, RvrsStng, with “testimonials” from people caught by reverse stings.
The authorities probably have a defense for this behavior. It is hard to imagine what it is. Reverse stings do not stop the flow of drugs into the country, nor the flow of money out of the country. Reverse stings create crimes, and find use the police to find criminals to commit these crimes. Often, the CI is a convicted criminal, trying to get part of his sentence reduced by entrapping others. Most of the people imprisoned by these fake crimes are people of color.
The story of Danny Egipciaco is similar to the story of Fred Thomas. One difference was that Mr. Thomas was an old white man living in North Georgia. In the Thomas case, some old men got to talking about forming a “well regulated militia.” A CI heard about it, and got into their plans. The CI had money, and contacts. One day, the old men went to a parking lot to meet an “arms dealer”.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. They were taken in Pie Town NM, in October 1940. The photographer was Russell Lee.