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Truck owner wants DEA to pay up after botched sting
The phone rang before sunrise. It woke Craig Patty, owner of a tiny North Texas trucking company, to vexing news about Truck 793 – a big red semi supposedly getting repairs in Houston.
“Your driver was shot in your truck,” said the caller, a business colleague. “Your truck was loaded with marijuana. He was shot eight times while sitting in the cab. Do you know anything about your driver hauling marijuana?”
“What did you say?” Patty recalled asking. “Could you please repeat that?”
The truck, it turned out, had been everywhere but in the repair shop.
Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty’s knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers.
At least 17 hours before that early morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers – all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.
In the confusion of the attack in northwest Harris County, compounded by officers in the operation not all knowing each other, a Houston policeman shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff’s deputy.
Still waiting
h/t Groucho Marxist
Johnny Freedom
July 31st, 2012
Yet another example of why we don’t need 20 Federal agencies with independent law enforcement abilities. How about just the FBI so we can keep closer tabs on them?
House of Kell
July 31st, 2012
LOL…I have to wonder about the competence of these agents….how the fuck, with “more than a dozen” heavily armed DEA and local police, did these bad guys get anywhere fucking near this truck, the driver, or better yet, INTO THE FUCKING COUNTRY???? I could have sworn Master Nanny-Stater just said “the Southern (?) borders are staffed, armed and protected better than at any time past”????
Does anyone else define this entire administration as ‘talking out of both sides of their asses’?
House of Kell
July 31st, 2012
Edit: “Nanny Stater Nan”
House of Kell
July 31st, 2012
@Johmmy: Brother, it would be easier for all of us if we just turned the entire length of the American/ mexican border into a free fire gun range with everyone firing South…that ‘might’ slow them down but I doubt it….barry woulkd probably create another EO allowing them to fly their pot in on United or something!
NEVER in my lifetime, have I seen so much fuck-up-ed-ness from one dickless retard and his administration of short bus shorties…..
Truthsayer221
July 31st, 2012
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1276332-the-25-sexiest-female-athletes-not-in-the-olympics
Truthsayer221
July 31st, 2012
OOPS!
the aardvark
July 31st, 2012
I see that Operation Fast and Furious is branching out into dope smuggling now. Are we hauling dope from Mexico in order to cover up giving them guns? Who the Hell knows with this corrupt and lawless administration! I feel sorry for this poor truck owner getting screwed by his own govt. in this way.
Unslung Hero
July 31st, 2012
All this over POT??? Janet Nepolitano should be on trial “west of the Pecos”!!!
the aardvark
July 31st, 2012
What would the real Judge Roy Bean do with these lawbreakers? I’d bet he’d hang them immediately right in front of the courthouse or local bar. Sometimes I wish we could have a little frontier justice in cases like this.
Pickled Liver
July 31st, 2012
Little was said about the poor soul who listened to this group of “Keystone Cops” and ended up dead! Way to provide cover and keep him secure!
WTF?
JustAl
July 31st, 2012
NO price is too high to keep people from sitting at home smoking pot! All hail the police state we’ve built, in a nation who’s only “growth industry” is arresting and imprisoning it’s own citizens.
All for the amusement of neocons and profit of the trial lawyers and DNC.
sileceal
July 31st, 2012
My sentiments exactly “House of Kell” and “the Aardvark”.
joe6pak
July 31st, 2012
The DEA and the DOJ are like the Keystone Cops, except with these guys people get killed.
bob
July 31st, 2012
If I were president I would legalize Marijuana and Hemp on day 1. Well, maybe day 2. But it would be real quick.
Blink
July 31st, 2012
If the pot dealers did this they could be sent to jail. When the government does this they put themselves above the law. Both are morally wrong. Only one is illegal. Good grief.
David Kramer
July 31st, 2012
Yep, the government is becoming as bad as the criminals they are going after.
sandybanks
July 31st, 2012
While I’m trying to figure out how this poor sap of a driver got himself in front of a multi-agency firing squad, how did these upstanding members of law enforcement entrap said poor sap into using his employer’s equipment without owner’s prior knowledge or permission?
Or doesn’t the law worry about little details?
Millertime
July 31st, 2012
The almighty federal government took a commercial vehicle from a small business owner without his authorization, engaged his employee in a felony crime and watched with dick in hand while said employee was turned into swiss cheese by a thug hijacker????
Now watch OSHA roll in and fine the company
After NHTSA levies a penalty
Wont leave enough meat on the bones for the wrongful death lawyer
BWSEATTLE
July 31st, 2012
Unbefuckinglieveable.
I can’t believe what my eyes just read.
Uncle Dirt
July 31st, 2012
Smells like Fast and Furious. Did they borrow agents form Holder?
The Doktor
July 31st, 2012
I believe that Millertime has the proper scenario worked out.