--For any curious SR users: It is traditional on SRF to place the [intel] tag in front of the subject line when submitting sources of documentation/news to the forum. Sources should be high quality and ideally primary sources. Since there is a diverse set of possible topic areas, if you want to get a sense of what is appropriate intelligence then search the forum using the [intel] tag.--Source: Title: Global Drug Enforcement - Practical Investigative TechniquesAuthor: Lee, Gregory DPublisher : CRC Press ISBN10 | ASIN : 0203488989 ISBN13 : 9780203613078 --Confidential InformantsDrug law enforcement operations rely heavily on the use of confidential informants as the general public does not usually report drug crimes. A drug agents professional accomplishments are directly related to his or her ability to recruit and manage a steady stream of diverse confidential informants (CIs).Drug informants are arguably the most difficult among all informants to control and manage. However, the chances of successfully managing them are increased significantly when drug agents know what motivates them to provide information to the police.Although CIs are a necessary tool in drug law enforcement, they must be carefully scrutinized for hidden motives. Drug agents are cautioned not to take anything a CI has to offer at face value, and to always corroborate their information either through surveillance, records, or even polygraph examinations, if warranted.The nature of drug cases often requires a CI to become closely involved with traffickers and their police handlers alike. They are asked to befriend drug dealers for the purpose of gaining their confidence so they may later be arrested. The personal relations drug informants develop with criminals can sometimes lead them into unethical, immoral, or illegal conduct.Some egotistical informants have personalities that make them difficult, if not almost impossible to manage. These individuals often have questionable motives for offering their services to law enforcement. When drug agents do not tightly control their informants, safety problems arise, placing department resources and personnel at risk. Each time an informant offers information, drug agents should question his motives and discontinue using him if he is not willing to accept his handlers specific direction. This chapter explains the most common motivational factors leading people to become informants, the professional working relationships that must exist, and the steps that must be taken to successfully manage them. Methods of keeping the informants identity confidential are identified in order to protect him from retaliation and keep him a viable asset for future counter-drug operations. The chapter also explains how to properly use a CI to make a controlled purchase of drugs.Purpose of InformantsDrug informants are used most frequently for the following reasons:To gather information from sources not readily available to law enforcement officers. Police have long depended on informants to provide them with information they would never otherwise receive. Because of the clandestine nature of the drug world, specific information about upcoming drug transactions, where drugs are being manufactured, and how they are transported is only known by those involved in the crime. Informants within drug organizations play a vital role in obtaining this needed information for law enforcement.To make observations in places where strangers would immediately be suspect. Many drug investigations require that surveillance operations be conducted within communities that are suspicious of strangers. Using informants who are accepted within these communities will lower the level of suspicion that a police operation is underway, and makes criminals operating in the area feel more comfortable. Unfamiliar faces in an area may raise suspicions that might force them to go deeper underground or change their modus operandi.To conduct undercover negotiations. Since drug dealers realize that a common drug law enforcement investigative technique is to infiltrate their organization with undercover agents, they frequently will not interact with strangers. Many dealers build up their businesses by not dealing with strangers, and they are not willing to take a risk with a new person, regardless of what he or she may have to offer. With proper direction and guidance, informants can take the place of an undercover drug agent in negotiating the purchase of drugs from a targeted drug dealer. When doing so, the drug agent should electronically record the conversation to corroborate exactly what the informant told the dealer, and what the dealer told the informant. Informants may be reliable in many cases, but they are not infallible. A recording device will capture all that was said, and nothing will be lost through faulty memory. A tape recording of the informants conversation with the drug dealer will also keep him honest. To gain firsthand, timely intelligence. Since informants have the ability to interact with criminals in both professional and social settings, they are in an excellent position to obtain information about crimes that have occurred or are about to occur. Police must still corroborate the informants information before any action is taken. Timely intelligence information provided by informants may later be the basis for search warrant affidavits, arrest warrants, or seizure warrants for drug proceeds, property, or money.Motivational FactorsLike many people, informants need motivation to produce. The more motivated they are, the more likely they are to apply themselves to the task at hand and remain committed to achieving success. Identifying an informants true motives for providing drug agents with information increases the chances of conducting an effective and safe drug operation. If a drug agent believes that the informant is providing information because he is repentant for past crimes, when in actuality he is there to learn police intelligence and their methods of operation in order to avoid detection himself, a disaster is in the making.Informants commonly voice a specific motive for providing information, however as the case progresses, other more compelling reasons may surface. Some of the more common motivational factors encountered by drug agents are fear, revenge, money, repentance, and sometimes altruism. However, often times an individuals ego and compulsion to play a role in something important and exciting drives the individual to become an informant.Walk-In/Call-In InformantsDrug agents need to be good listeners and carefully evaluate a first time informants information being offered over the telephone. Someone who visits the drug agents office offering information must be scrutinized for what is motivating him or her to take this initial step. A thorough interview will often reveal clues as to what is motivating this person to come forward. Their information cannot be discounted simply because the person is not willing to meet with a drug agent in person. Drug agents should obtain identifying information and a callback telephone number whenever possible. The informant should be encouraged to submit to a face-to-face meeting if the informants information appears actionable.FearThe most frequent motivation leading someone to provide information is the fear of going to prison. Fear is a strong motivator when someone has just been arrested and faces the probability of years of imprisonment for committing drug crimes.Drug agents will attempt to convince a newly arrested suspect to immediately provide information leading to other arrests in the ongoing investigation. Drug agents must convince the potential informant that this may be his only opportunity to help himself in his pending legal matter. The agent must never promise a reduced sentence or other consideration, but can assure the person that his cooperation will be made known to the prosecutor and the court at a future date. He should know that his lack of cooperation will also be brought to the attention of the prosecutor and court.A typical scenario may be this: a suspect has agreed to deliver a quantity of drugs to an undercover drug agent. Upon delivering the drugs, the suspect is arrested and taken into custody. Drug agents will frequently question the suspect at the scene of the arrest, and solicit his cooperation in helping them immediately expand their investigation. They will ask the arrested person who his drug source of supply is and where more drugs are located.Drug agents know that fear will often motivate a suspect to cooperate in the investigation once he realizes how much punishment he is likely to receive if convicted of the crime, especially if the person has prior drug arrests (see Chapter 10). This fear tactic may induce him to make a recorded telephone call to his drug source in the hopes of getting him to acknowledge furnishing the drugs, thereby making him also subject to indictment.Depending on the particular circumstances, drug agents may ask the arrested person to immediately telephone his source to set up a meeting on the pretense of paying for the drugs just delivered, or to deliver more drugs for another sale. If the drug agents are successful in luring the source of supply out in the open and can arrest him, they will attempt to convince him to also cooperate. The technique of convincing a person to cooperate against co-conspirators is commonly known as flipping the suspect.It should be noted that once it becomes public knowledge that someone has been arrested on drug charges, other members of the conspiracy often assume the suspect is cooperating with drug agents and may identify other members of the conspiracy. Because of this assumption, co-conspirators will usually avoid the arrested suspect and cut off all forms of communication with him for fear he is setting them up to be arrested. Swift action must be taken by drug agents to seize the opportunity before other co-conspirators realize what has happened. Defendant-informants, however, may still be valuable in testifying against other members of the conspiracy in return for legal consideration.Informants may also be motivated to cooperate with drug agents to protect them from their criminal associates. Some may think that by having their criminal associates arrested, they will protect themselves from retribution and will not have to pay for any drugs their source of supply advanced or fronted them on consignment.Fear in the mind of a drug dealer can also stem from a member of a drug conspiracy falsely accusing him of being an informant and cooperating with the police. In order to seek self-preservation, money, or both, they will often become informants.Revenge and JealousyBoth revenge and jealousy have historically motivated people to do things they might not normally do. Jealousy may stem from love or money, but business disputes between competing drug criminal organizations may prompt revenge.Drug agents should be wary of informants who seek to eliminate their own drug dealing competition. Nothing prevents a drug agent from using this information to target the competing drug dealer. However, once the competitor is arrested, the drug agent should solicit his help in eliminating the informants drug enterprise as well.RepentanceInformants often claim they are repentant for past crimes, but this is rarely the case. Expressions of repentance are sometimes used to convince the drug agent he or she is now a good person and wants to make amends for past deeds. However, this is seldom their only motive for cooperating. When drug agents encounter an informant who claims repentance as their sole reason for providing information, they must be cautious of hidden and sometimes devious motivational factors.AltruismSome individuals are motivated by a sense of self-sacrifice. People with professional obligations or feelings of responsibility frequently provide information to the police. Examples of altruistic informants include airline employees when they see something suspicious about a passenger or his baggage, or express delivery service employees who detect drugs in packages they are delivering. These informants are rarely involved in criminal activity, and their usefulness is limited.MercenariesSome individuals provide information or services simply for money. These money-motivated informants, known as mercenaries, are usually the most willing to follow a drug agents direction. They frequently have a history of criminal activity prior to their relationship with law enforcement. This familiarization with crime and criminals make them a valuable asset for drug agents who must rely on them to make frequent and personal contacts with drug traffickers to glean criminal intelligence. They often serve as a means of introducing an undercover drug agent to drug dealers on the pretense of being a buyer of narcotics or someone who can provide a specific service in the drug trade such as a transportation specialist or money launderer.Money-motivated informants are expected to accompany the targeted drug dealer alone for much longer periods of time than would be practical for an undercover drug agent. Drug agents should be aware that they frequently possess other motives besides remuneration that must be explored. They are professionals deserving of respect and appropriate compensation if agents want them to continue providing information in the future. Payments to informants will be discussed in detail later in this chapter.EgotismThese commonly encountered informants often have low self-esteem and may not have received positive reinforcement from their parents, authority figures, or peers when growing up. Consequently, as adults they seek positive reinforcement wherever they can get it and sometimes rely on anticipated positive feedback from their handlers for doing a good job. Drug agents who provide egotistical informants positive reinforcement motivate them to continue supplying quality information. Unfortunately, these informants are often the hardest to handle because their egos prevent them from relinquishing control of the investigation to their handlers.Egotistical informants wish to have an aggressive role in the undercover investigation in order to justify as much praise or money as possible. They will sometimes prolong an investigation unnecessarily in order to justify more money or praise. They are quick to remind their handling agent that if it were not for them, the case would never have happened. An informant in this category may demand payment for services rendered, but in reality, the praise he expects to receive from authority figures is the primary motivator for him becoming and staying an informant.Drug agents who recognize egotistical informants for what they are should heap the praise he desperately seeks. To deny these informants praise could jeopardize future working relationships with him and may drive him to work with another drug agent or go to an entirely different agency to offer his services. The ego of the informant should not be in competition with the ego of the handling agent. James Bond SyndromeSome drug informants see their role as an opportunity to have their life imitate art. While working as informants they imagine themselves in a particular police or spy drama. Sometimes they will even orchestrate events to parallel a scene from a movie or chapter of a novel. Being especially hard to handle, these informants often exaggerate their knowledge of drug activity to enhance the likelihood of becoming an informant so they can play the role of their life. When an informant insists that an undercover operation be conducted in a particular or peculiar way or demands that he be issued a weapon, identification, or fancy vehicle, these are indicators he may be more interested in his role than the objective of the investigation.These informants are rarely motivated to work for the police to make amends for past criminal activity, but rather give their motive for becoming an informant as something as noble as wanting to help win the war on drugs. Drug agents are advised to handle this type of informant carefully. Although the information they provide may be credible and easily verifiable, the informant cannot be allowed to take control of the investigation and dictate how it will be conducted. To do so wastes valuable time and resources while the informant plays out his fantasies. The informants insistence on how to carry out a particular phase of the case may raise unnecessary safety concerns for drug agents and the informant alike. The informants handler must control him by making it clear that although his suggestions will be seriously considered, the agent is the decision maker and his or her supervisor is the final authority on how the investigation will be conducted.The WannabeWannabe informants are usually people that from a very young age, wanted to become a law enforcement officer. For whatever reason though they did not qualify, either because of physical or psychological defects, and believe that becoming an informant is the only way left for them to fulfill their lifes desire. Because they usually lack criminal associates, these individuals usually cannot provide specific information about drug traffickers, and thus do not make good informants.Indicators that the drug agents may be dealing with a wannabe are when the prospective informant asks to see what the drug agents badge and identification card look like or asks what the likelihood of him becoming a sworn officer is. Drug agents who use wannabe informants run the risk of the informant purposely implying to third parties they are actually police officers. These informants also have a tendency to reveal their role to unconcerned parties, implying they have some sort of governmental authority, which they do not. Perversely Motivated InformantsPerhaps the most dangerous and disruptive person a drug agent will encounter in drug law enforcement is a perversely motivated informant. They offer their services to law enforcement agencies for the purpose of identifying undercover agents, learning the departments methods, targets, and intelligence, or eliminating their own competition in the drug business. Sometimes criminal organizations, especially outlaw motorcycle gangs, instruct these individuals to infiltrate departments as informants and employees to learn whatever they can to assist the traffickers. These individuals may even provide genuine information about a specific event as a decoy to divert resources from a much more significant trafficking activity elsewhere.