The Throwaways

Police enlist young offenders as confidential informants, the New Yorker reports. They are the foot soldiers in the government’s war on drugs. By some estimates, up to 80 percent of all drug cases in America involve them. For police departments facing budget woes, untrained C.I.s provide an inexpensive way to outsource the work of undercover officers. But the work is high-risk, largely unregulated, and sometimes fatal.