It seems impossible to believe, but it couldn’t be more true: A U.S. police department has actually announced it will get into the illicit drug trade just to catch people using illicit drugs.

Talk about your make-work programs, this one doesn’t have a shred of ethics. Whatever happened to the motto, “To Serve and Protect”?

As reported by The Free Thought Project, the Albuquerque, NM Police Department’s plan to manufacture crack cocaine in order to catch drug dealers signifies all that is wrong with the “war on drugs.”

Burque Media reported exclusively recently that a confidential source had supplied it with plans by the APD to pursue low-level drug users in “a reverse buy-bust operation.” So the department isn’t even going after major players—just the bottom-tier users.

In this scenario, undercover cops actually sell drugs to citizens, then arrest them for possession. And part of that operation will involve the department making the drugs.

There’s something seriously wrong when a police department has to manufacture drug crimes, as if there isn’t enough drug crime already. Maybe the city council in Albuquerque secretly issued a drug quota to its police department as a means of raising revenue.

Section 10 of the 12-section “Affidavit and Motion to Release Evidence,” dated February of this year, says, “Powdered cocaine may be taken to APD’s Criminalistics Unit to be made into crack cocaine.”

‘This is downright dangerous’

In addition, the plan calls for the release of up to, without exceeding the amount of, 8 ounces of cocaine base, which is commonly referred to as crack, as well as up to 8 ounces of heroin and methamphetamine “for use in a ‘Reversal Operation.’”

The plan, which could have been revealed during the discovery process in a criminal case, the confidential source noted, is allegedly based on citizen complaints, though there is no evidence given to support that—other than the claim made by the department and the approving authority.

“Law enforcement has tried many methods and has been unable to effectively stop the supply of drugs to the street dealers and users in these areas,” it states. “These methods include but are not limited too [sic] successfully purchasing drugs from drug dealers in the area. Other traditional methods of narcotic investigations have not been completely successful in curtailing the drug trafficking in the City of Albuquerque.”

Not all law enforcement professionals are on board with this. Former Chief Deputy District Attorney and former Chief Public Safety Officer Pete Dinelli told Burque Media he was incredulous upon learning of the plan, and said it was anything but a good idea.

He added that it was “downright dangerous” to be using drugs seized in other busts as part of sting operations because that created “chain of custody” issues as well.

Sources:

TheFreeThoughtProject.com

BurqueMedia.com