BAD ARRESTS ARE THE PROBLEM

Bob Ray Sanders made the very valid point that fake drugs are not the
problem in the Dallas narcotics department. Bad information from paid
informants and bad arrests are the problem, and it is not limited to
Dallas. Take the case of Loren Pogue, who is serving 22 years for
conspiracy to import drugs and money laundering. He is held at the Federal
Medical Center in Fort Worth.

Pogue owned a real estate firm in San Vito, Costa Rica. He was an active
member of the community. One day a part-time employee asked him to sit in
on a closing. The purchasers commented that they intended to build an
airstrip on the property and smuggle drugs. The property was mountainous
and unsuitable for an airstrip. The part-time employee was a confidential
informant who was paid $250,000. The purchasers were DEA undercover agents.
Pogue did not stop the sale, so he was sentenced to 22 years.

He says: "There were no drugs involved. The government agents said they
were going to fly 1,000 kilos of drugs into the U.S., and that's what I was
sentenced on."

A system that depends on paid informants and deception to make arrests and
cases will never be just.

Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas