The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "drug bust" ...
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Drug Under the Rug
A four-month investigation into the whereabouts of Athens County law enforcement agencies' seizures and forfeitures of items obtained during drug busts revealed that many, particularly the Sheriff, failed to report these items to the Attorney General's Office and could not account for the whereabouts of these items when questioned.
Tags: Drugs; drug busts; forfeitures
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Cuban Pot Rings
“Cuban-run drug rings dominate Florida’s indoor marijuana-cultivation trade, which supplies the Eastern seaboard state with some of the most potent and expensive marijuana in the US. Court records and interviews with drug agents showed that up to 90 percent of the hundreds of suspects busted each year running illegal grow houses are recently arrived Cuban refugees”.
Tags: cops; police; law enforcement; crime; arrests; drugs; court; Central Florida
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That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles; Tales of the Dragon
A network of ranch homes in a sleepy suburb became the site of Colorado's largest indoor marijuana bust. Dan Tang, the pot-growing ring leader, got off on just one charge of money laundering.
Tags: Dan Tang; Colorado; marijuana; drug bust; growing; indoor; police; largest indoor drug bust;
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Buy and Bust: New York City's War on Drugs at 40
In this collection, it explores the four major drugs that have affected New York City. These are heroin, cocaine, crack, and marijuana, which tell part of the story of the past four decades. They “traced each drug’s introduction into the city, their era of popularity, key players, law enforcement efforts, prosecution, treatment efforts, current use levels, and prices, etc.” Also, they found that there are as many hard-core users today as there were over the past 40 years.
Tags: New York City; drugs; drug war; heroin; cocaine; crack; marijuana; arrests
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The Untold Story of Tulia, Texas
The author investigated the outcome of FBI and Department of Justice investigations into a 1999 drug bust that caught 10 percent of the town's African American population and was labeled as racially motivated. The author found several inconsistencies in what the media published and what the FBI and DOJ said happened in their reports. Settlements were handed out but the reports were never released.
Tags: racism; FBI; Department of Justice; drugs; Tulia; Texas; unlawful arrest; FOIA; Tom Coleman; ethnic cleansing
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Crackpot Crackdown
Police and the DA in Jackson County, Texas, ran a series of drug busts for minor infractions. All of the suspects were African-Americans and were intimidated into pleading guilty rather than face much harsher sentences. The entire sting operation was based on the testimony of a single confidential police informant. Civil rights lawyers are now involved in trying to remedy some of the most flagrant miscarriages of justice.
Tags: Minorities; selective prosecution; racism; drug arrests; racial profiling
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Drug Dependency: U.S. Has developed An Expensive Habit: Now, How to Pay for It?
The Journal reports that "scores of pricey new pills improve quality of life, but bust health budgets ... A revolution in pharmaceutical research, a billion-dollar marketing blitz and Americans' voracious appetite for Viagra, Claritin and a host of other pricey pills are driving drug spending to record-high levels. And nobody, it seems, knows what to do about it."
Tags: marketing; prescription drugs; elderly; health care; medicine; technology
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Drinking and Driving
Pitch Weekly reports on an undercover drug-bust in which eleven workers were arrested at the Claycomo Ford Assembly Plant. Some say workers use drugs to cope with the long hours, management and the awful heat. Despite a previous investigation in the early 1990s, Ford invited the task force to combat the problem. This article details both sides of the investigation- detailing employees who were caught as well as reporting on the actions of the undercover agent.
Tags: drugs; employees; police; investigation
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Our Man in Mexico
"Sal Martinez was a drug agent who did everything by the book. Which means he broke the laws the Feds wanted him to break...'Go down there and sell some drugs. Bust some heads. Play like a mafioso.' Then one day Sak crossed the line - and he's still paying for it." Bowden studies the life of career DEA agent, Sal Martinez as he prepares to go to prison for 87 months. Martinez worked on both sides of the Mexican boarder for seven years in the DEA. Most of Martinez's work was undocumented, allowing him to carry out assignments with at his own discretion. That often meant the use of Mexican police tactics. It was these same tactics that the FBI say Martinez asked the police to use on a young man who killed his cousin. Bowden takes a look at Martinez's unusual case. "Normally, an agent who crosses the like Sal did gets sent to a shrink or tossed out of the agency. Not sent to jail."
Tags: Law Enforcement; DEA; Mexico