Viktor Bout

Government Wants Life Sentence For 'Merchant Of Death' Viktor Bout

Ryan J. Reilly | April 5, 2012, 9:55AM

The feds want Viktor Bout -- the man they describe as one of the "the world's most successful and sophisticated arms traffickers" -- to spend the rest of his life in jail.

Bout, whose life inspired the movie Lord of War and earned him the nicknamed the "Merchant of Death," was found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. citizens and officials, delivering anti-aircraft missiles and providing aid to a terrorist organization. He was arrested in Thailand in 2008 following a sting operation set up by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents. He's set to be sentenced by a federal judge in New York at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Federal authorities called Bout "a businessman of the most dangerous order" and said in a court filing that Bout "remained ready, willing and able to provide a breathtaking arsenal of weapons -- including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles, machine-guns, and sniper rifles -- 10 million rounds of ammunition, and five tons of plastic explosives to men he believed represented FARC, a U.S.-and E.U.-designated foreign terrorist organization."

DOJ

DOJ Report: DEA Needs To Be More Covert About Their Undercover Airplanes

Ryan J. Reilly | December 14, 2011, 12:55PM

The Drug Enforcement Administration needs to keep their undercover aerial operations targeting narcotics trafficking along the Mexican border and in foreign countries a bit more hush-hush, according to a new report from the Justice Department's inspector general.

As of March, DOJ investigators searching the FAA aircraft registration database were able to find records of 25 domestically-based DEA aircraft that "should have been registered covertly to fictitious or cover organizations but that were not." As of Sept. 7, 13 DEA aircraft that should have been registered covertly still weren't (TPM found five planes registered still registered to the DEA in a search of the FAA's database on Wednesday).

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Iran

Man Arrested In Saudi Ambassador Assassination Plot Had Cousin In Iranian Military

Ryan J. Reilly | October 11, 2011, 4:45PM

Saudi Ambassador To The U.S. Adel Al-Jubeir

It was thanks to a man who dodged a state-level narcotics offense by becoming a paid confidential source to the DEA that the feds stumbled upon an alleged plot by an Iranian official to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

In a plan that federal officials described as "well-funded," "chilling" and out of the "pages of a Hollywood script," two men, allegedly working at the behest of elements of the Iranian military, plotted to hire a man they thought was affiliated with a Mexican drug cartel, to take out Saudi Arabian ambassador Adel A. Al-Jubeir, perhaps while he dined at a D.C. restraurant.

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Fast And Furious

Dem Response To ATF Scandal: Hey, Maybe We Should Make Gun Trafficking Illegal

Ryan J. Reilly | July 18, 2011, 3:50PM

Rep. Darrell E. Issa (D-CA) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)

Everyone seems pretty upset right now with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over their botched "Fast and Furious" program. Agents allegedly watched as suspected "straw purchasers" bought weapons they intended to give to Mexican drug cartels. So Democrats have a crazy idea: maybe buying weapons for drug cartels should be, you know, illegal.

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Marijuana

Feds Take 3,194 Days To Decide They Still Don't Like Marijuana

Ryan J. Reilly | July 11, 2011, 10:35AM

Nearly nine years ago, the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis challenged the Drug Enforcement Administration's classification of marijuana as a schedule I drug, asking them to reschedule cannabis as a schedule III, IV or V drug instead. In other words, they wanted it downgraded in federal eyes. On Friday, they got their answer: no thanks.

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DOJ

Federal Agents Say Turf Wars Have Negatively Affected Investigations

Ryan J. Reilly | May 9, 2011, 3:56PM

One-third of federal agents surveyed by a government oversight agency have gotten into turf wars with other federal law enforcement agencies during the course of an investigation during the past five years. Of those who experienced disagreements, 78 percent said those disagreements negatively affected the investigation to some degree, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

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John Murtha

Obama Proposes 43 Percent Cut For Murtha's National Drug Intelligence Center

Ryan J. Reilly | February 15, 2011, 10:30AM

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)

A project championed by the late Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) got the axe in the fiscal year 2012 budget proposed by President Barack Obama on Monday.

The National Drug Intelligence Center is slated to receive 43.2 percent less money in 2012, going from a budget of $44 million to just $25 million.

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Drug Enforcement Agency

Marijuana Backers To GOPers: Why Not Cut The DEA Budget?

Ryan J. Reilly | February 3, 2011, 11:15AM

With Republicans in the House looking to cut down on spending in the next fiscal year, supporters of legalizing marijuana have a suggestion for where they should start -- the Drug Enforcement Agency's budget.

Sure, they know it's a long shot. But the Marijuana Policy Project's Steve Fox told TPM it makes a lot of sense.

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Drug Enforcement Agency

DEA Agent Who Shot Self Presses Forward In Suit Against Gov't (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | February 2, 2011, 11:10AM

A Drug Enforcement Agency agent who shot himself in the foot during a classroom demonstration in a video that went viral on YouTube is asking an appeals court to rule that the disclosure of the video was an invasion of privacy.

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tampa Bay Bandits football player and undercover agent Lee Paige first sued over the disclosure of the April 2004 video in April 2006. Now, Mike Scarcella of National Law Journal reports, he wants an appeals court to overturn a ruling that ended the suit in December.

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Allen Stanford

After Complaining Of Delay, Allen Stanford Wants Two Year Hold On Trial

Ryan J. Reilly | January 5, 2011, 12:00PM

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford, the man accused of stealing $7 billion from investors in a Ponzi scheme, wants a two year delay in his trial. But the Justice Department argued this week that's all his lawyers are trying to do with their request is to get him released from prison in the interim.

The feds said in a court filing that the two year postponement is excessive and that defense lawyers had already filed motions "covering most conceivable legal issues."

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Medical Marijuana

Feds Want Michigan's Medical Marijuana Documents

Ryan J. Reilly | December 29, 2010, 10:29AM

The federal government wants the department that oversees the state of Michigan's medical marijuana program to provide records for seven individuals under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The Department of Community Health hasn't yet complied with the subpoena because there are potential civil and criminal penalties for violating confidentiality under the state's medical marijuana law, the Grand Rapids Press reports.

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Raymond Martin

Alleged Crooked Sheriff On Pot-Dealing Competitor: I'll 'Put The Fear Of God In Him'

Justin Elliott | January 5, 2010, 1:42PM

Raymond Martin

Sheriff Raymond Martin once pulled his service revolver from its holster and pointed it at his drug-dealing partner, warning the man there was no "getting out" of their relationship, a criminal complaint against Martin alleges.

We told you earlier about how Martin, the sheriff in rural Gallatin County in southern Illinois, was arrested last May on drug and gun charges for allegedly dealing marijuana that had been confiscated by police.

Martin and his wife and son were charged Monday with murder-for-hire, reportedly for targeting witnesses who are going to testify against Martin. While the details of the alleged murder plot have not been released, we've now dug into the original drug complaint against the sheriff.

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Corruption

Small Town Illinois Sheriff Charged With Pot Dealing And Murder-For-Hire

Justin Elliott | January 5, 2010, 9:48AM

Raymond and Krista Martin (Cody Martin, Inset)

Raymond Martin had been sheriff in tiny Gallatin County, Illinois, for 20 years. So when he was arrested on federal drug and gun charges last May for allegedly running a large-scale marijuana dealing operation out of his police SUV, residents were shocked.

But that was only the beginning.

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