I tend to be a pretty sympathetic person, even to people who do bad things. However, here’s a case where I have no sympathy…
Continue reading: US CBP Officer Smuggles 16 Bricks Of Cocaine On Delta Flight To Atlanta
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20 years seem very light... In many countries this would easily be a death penalty. Also I believe LEOs that are caught should be punished harder than regular people: they know exactly what they're doing and they're abusing their position to help facilitate what they're doing. Because of that they're harder to catch, and they can smuggle a lot more than the average Joe, so a heavy punishment is needed to deter.
@ Julie @ Eskimo @ James @ Mason @ Truth @ Facts -- I'm confused how the same email address is used for all those usernames, but the message is the same regardless. Your racism has no place here. Going forward, your comments will be moderated, and only manually approved if they follow commenting guidelines.
Kind of creepy to think that all those “commenters” are one person using sock puppet names, assuming that’s what’s going on.
How do we define what is a light vs heavy sentence? 20 years for a 45 year old will take him to 65 years old with massive red flags in future employment opportunities. To be honest I'm not sure how different that is compared to a life sentence
That being said on the other hand I agree that the fact that this was a badged officer makes this far worse
You tend to be sympathetic towards people who do bad things ? You’re “happy” because this person was law enforcement because you sympathize with backpackers on a tv show you watched ? I’d have to read the case myself as this article is poorly written with loopholes but 20 yrs sounds a bit much.
No they’re sending your people to alligator Alcatraz in Florida. Netflix show already coming.
And here I thought, only Mexicans and other Central Americans bring drugs to US.
Like you Ben I also watch 'Banged up abroad' and there are some sad stories.
But the common denominator seems to be that drug smugglers rarely get caught the first, second, third......time. And each time they are not caught their confidence increases, along with the quantities carried and risks taken.
Somehow, I doubt this was the first time the CBP officer did this. 15KG in hand baggage is no small stash.
Kinda funny this comes up after I made the point to someone else on the TSA article who was complaining about KCM random screening. I'm glad this officer is being held accountable for his actions.
Locked up abroad was a great show. We don’t know who the CBP officer is no need to jump to assumptions about getting what they deserved.
What is so bad about cocaine? SERIOUSLY!
And my ex girlfriend was hot see I am ok using it!
What is so bad about cocaine? SERIOUSLY!
A small percentage of people who try cocaine become physiologically addicted.
Other than that the riskiest element of cocaine is the potential for criminal penalties.
A civil and educated society would repeal all drug laws, collect a tax on recreational drugs, and implement compassionate healthcare for the treatment of addiction.
What this Officer did was completely harmless and nonviolent. It would be a travesty to have him imprisoned for 20 minutes, let alone 20 years. America's prison population is embarrassingly world-leading for the very simple reason that we are all too happy to imprison nonviolent "offenders."
We should also repeal all drug laws, that's a conversation for another topic I guess.
Twenty years in federal prison followed by five on supervised release seems like a severe sentence to me. In many civilised countries that's the lead-in sentence for convicted murderers. That should deter all but the most determined. People keep getting caught by countries that execute drug traffickers, so the death penalty is no deterrent either.
Another spam comment. Is that you, Eskimo? Your racism gets called-out so suddenly you're going to start masquerading as a blue-haired non-binary fat-activist human rights lawyer from San Francisco? Abolish prison, abolish money, ACAB, right?
Using cocaine is most certainly not harmless, but the Officer merely transported the substance which is completely inert in transit
I am indeed from San Francisco (but do not live there currently), I do support prison abolition, but none of the other accusations lobbed at me by Pete have veracity.
Nonsense. The cardiovascular effects of cocaine are serious. It causes heart attacks and strokes. This is a fact. But you're not here for facts, you're hear to make childish comments and stoke controversy. Weak. Pathetic, and weak.
The big question; is the enough felonies to qualify to be the next US president? I guess it would also be required to be a Republican. If he is leaning left, the felonies are a bad thing. Don’t believe me, ask Fox Not-News.
As a CBP Officer that worked with him, I can tell you he was a Lazy guy and when the previous LEO (the Governor escort) from STT was caught in STT airport going to Florida with 7 kilos of cocaine by our K9. I guess he was the one who won the job interview to be his replacement. I pretty sure there has to be one doing it more low key. We
Earn good money as a LEO
But the people that do this don’t have the integrity and cave in to the . They should be punished more because they swore an oath. If you don’t know, as a LEO you have to have a clean record, no Felony’s good financial records and can’t Lie. No drug use, also a back ground check every 5 years. When the government jobs are opened nationwide 10K applicants apply because out that number less than 1K will be selected to go to the academy.
Makes me wonder about the rules and what the rules should be for using the official lanes for TSA and CBP workers....Agree with the comment that he should have gotten a harder consequence because it is clear he knew what he was doing and risked it.
In 26 years as an airline pilot, I have never seen a police dog show up in a jetway to sniff bags. I've had the police show up at the plane for different reasons. Guy's very unlucky or they were tipped off.
ATL - has a lot of entertainment Production these days.
Easy hits for law enforcement.
A quick google will show you several incidents of Money / drug dogs on the Jet Bridges in ATL
20 years seems harsh. Especially when you consider that Michael Slager received a 20-year sentence for killing Walter Scott. 2nd degree murder, in my opinion, is far worse than smuggling drugs.
You should try flying from AMS or from various Caribbean airports (CUR, UVF, TAB). At least, that was my experience where I've seen sniffer dogs upon arrival.
Playing devils advocate, that amount of cocaine could cause multiple ODs or get a lot of people addicted. There's a high probability of harm from bringing that amount of cocaine into the country, which could quite easily end or ruin more lives than one police officer did. Add to that this CBP officer knew what he was doing was illegal, and was abusing his position to do it for his own personal gain, and 20 years seems reasonable. This wasn't a case of a tourist bringing a little back for their own personal use, which IMO would merit a much lighter sentence.
Only thing missing from his plans, Puppy in the Jetway went over to him, barked, sat down. Works both ways: from AMS to ATL, boarding is a 350 pound skin-head, a huge red swastika that covered his bald head. Various facial jewelry, tattoos every bit of visible skin, metal chains all over. Immigration in ATL, small dog runs up to him, barks. Skinhead turns white, frozen. Agent grabs the dog's chain, "Come on, come on..." and walks away. Skinhead still frozen. I looked over at the Agent as we were walking off, "Pig manure. That dog absolutely loves the smell of pig manure. Fella's been on a pig farm!"