Law
Enforcement:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
12/9/05
This week, we turn our attention from the mundane corruption of dope-dealing prison guards and dope-stealing bad cops to the systemic corruption created by the reliance on informants in drug cases. The Los Angeles Times has unraveled the story of a rogue DEA snitch and the handlers who let him run free. Let's get to it: In 2003, Yemeni immigrant Nabil Ismael met fellow Yemeni Essam Magid, who told Ismael he worked for the DEA. If Ismael could help him locate some cocaine connections, Magid could help him get in line for a federal job and a better life. The notion of helping his adopted land proved enticing, and Ismael agreed. Although Ismael had no drug history or connections, he started asking customers at his auto dealership where he could score. A year later, he was arrested on drug trafficking charges, but instead of copping a plea and taking four years in prison, he fought back. In doing so, he shone a light on an informant who was out of control and had sent a least a dozen other people to prison. It's not that the DEA didn't know it had a problem controlling snitches. The 2001 Andrew Chambers "supersnitch" scandal had blown the lid off DEA informant misbehavior, and a Justice Department inspector general's report earlier this year found that the problems continue. Magid's promises of a federal job were out of line, and his supervisor DEA Agent Duane Bareng should have known. It is unclear whether he did, although he partnered with Magid in drug deals at the auto dealership and insisted on paying Ismael $600 for the contacts he provided. When Ismael decided to fight, his attorney, Ian Loveseth, began digging and was soon able to find a long criminal rap sheet for Magid, including a 1996 forgery charge and an assaulting an officer charge a year later. Two years after that, Magid was busted trying to sell 50 cases of pseudoephedrine, a key precursor in the home manufacture of methamphetamine. The feds offered him a deal: rat out others and avoid prison. Magid was so good at wrapping up fellow Yemenis -- all of whom he apparently saw as potential targets -- that he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from the DEA, FBI, and IRS. All of those agencies ignored DEA documents that showed Magid had lied on the stand in small claims court at Bareng's direction. He also threatened witnesses and used his position for personal gain, Loveseth found. And he revealed the names of two FBI agents to the targets of a terrorism investigation, after first denying doing so. The FBI notified Bareng about Magid's troubles, but Bareng wanted him back, although he should have gone to prison for violating his plea agreement by lying to authorities. US prosecutors even dropped the remaining drug count hanging over his head. Bareng also knew that Magid was using his informant status to start federal investigations of people to whom he owed money. In one case, he told the feds one man was dealing drugs and planning a terror attack, all in an apparent attempt to get out of a $4,000 debt. When Ismael went to trial in August, Bareng testified he was never told why the FBI had stopped using Magid as an informant. But US District Court Judge Charles Breyer recalled FBI agents testifying they had told Bareng his snitch was crooked. An angry Breyer called Bareng on his testimony, and after a brief recess, Bareng changed his story. "So the fact that an informant comes in, lies to the FBI, you find out about it, Magid comes and tells you that he lied to the FBI -- that's just nowhere in the DEA records; is that right?" asked an incredulous Breyer. "And you had conversations with the DEA and there are no records of that; is that right?" Bareng and others had knowingly relied on a "lawless" informant, Breyer told prosecutors, and Bareng had probably perjured himself. At that point, Bareng lawyered up and refused to testify any further. Minutes later, the charges against Ismael were dropped. But that wasn't enough for Breyer. He felt compelled to order an investigation of the witness misconduct and possible perjury, he said. Now the Justice Department inspector general and federal prosecutors from San Diego are digging deeper, including how far us the DEA ladder knowledge of Bareng's and Magid's tag-team misdeeds went.
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