In a nation addicted to drugs, police across the country have become addicted to informants. Nowhere is this more apparent than in one New England port city, where police have been empowered to use informants to take down dealers by almost any means necessary. This is the story of a deeply flawed system, the flawed individuals working within it, and the injustices that can occur when no one’s watching. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the role of confidential informants in drug investigations?
Almost every drug investigation in America is based on a confidential informant. People with their own troubles who see a path forward by telling on someone else. The CI system is based on blind trust and can have deadly consequences. It is shadowy. Things just had gotten to the point of no control. It is underground. The corruption level was just off the hook. It really was.
Chapter 2: Who is Dugan Arnett and what is his background?
Chapter 3: What are the consequences of the CI system?
Almost every drug investigation in America is based on a confidential informant. People with their own troubles who see a path forward by telling on someone else. The CI system is based on blind trust and can have deadly consequences. It is shadowy. Things just had gotten to the point of no control. It is underground. The corruption level was just off the hook. It really was.
Chapter 4: How does corruption influence police actions?
I'm Dugan Arnett, an investigative reporter with the Boston Globe Spotlight team. And I'm gonna bring you inside this secret world through the story of one city at the forefront of America's drug war, where the CI system has gone off the rails. Cops think they can get away with anything, okay? Basically, they'll let this disappear if I do something for them. They lie.
They just lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. You look like a drug rep. Like something out of a fucking movie. They're onto you. You better smarten up. I don't want to go to jail. You didn't want to be labeled a rat. Not around here. You're going to hear from an informant betrayed by a police force that promised to keep him safe. We heard you was working with the police. You're going to get stabbed.
A drug dealer who got squeezed by the FBI and asked to snitch on police. So he come over thinking I was going to rap. A cop with mixed loyalties who passed information onto a gang member. You see how that could look like you're just trying to help a friend again? And a veteran officer still on the job, ready to name names. Who else do I have to tell? I call the FBI and they don't follow me back.
And that's just a start. You motherfuckers don't rat on each other. So don't start telling my client what the hell he or she should do. This is Spotlight. Snitch City. An investigative series from the Boston Globe. Coming March 11th.