The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "drug traffic" ...
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Stopwatch
The Fredrick News Post determined if disparity existed in discretionary traffic stops by using law enforcemnet's own records. It found that blacks were more likely to be searched when stopped than white motorists.
Tags: warrant; search; seizure; drugs; race; racism; minority; discrimination;
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A Pattern of Suspicion
This fourteen month investigation into racial profiling began with the 2001 death of Timothy Thomas, an African - American teenager in Cincinnati. Thomas had fourteen police warrants before he was killed, all of which stemmed from unpaid traffic tickets for non-moving violations. These sorts of violations are often used as a pretext for seeing if suspicious motorists have drugs or guns. In nearly every city Dateline looked at, blacks were stopped or ticketed for non-moving violations at least twice as often as whites.
Tags: racism; profiling; traffic tickets; police corruption
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Prescription for Pain
The stories demonstrated that Eastern Kentucky led the nation in the distribution of prescription narcotics-much of it illegal. Reporters found a series of unlikely accomplices to the illegal trafficing including the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Local cops were corrupt or compromised and a $30 million federal enforcement effort was rendered ineffective by a lack of cooperation among the police agencies involved. The reports found an elected judge who admitted that he'd had private business dealings with rug dealers and was unilaterally lowering drug offenders' sentences set by plea bargains. The reporters also found that effecive drug treatment was hard to find in rural areas of Kentucky. The newspaper also produced an examination of how OxyContin was marketed through "detailing," the practice of sending sales men directly into doctor's offices. The reporting also took readers inside one local drug ring. Finally, the newspaper examined how public Medicaid payments were providing some rural Kentucy drug dealsers with millions of silent partners-U.S. taxpayers- who were helping to ensure their supply.
Tags: prescription narcotis; illegal trafficking; federal Drug Enforcement Administration; OxyContin; painkillers; FBI; methanphetamine; taxpayers; medicaid; substance abuse; rural Kentucky; Social Security Administrationn; drug traffickers; drug abuse; lortab; tylox; xanax; cocaine; marijuana; Lee County Sheriff's Department; Beattyville; Beattyville Police; Operation Grinch; Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program; HIDTA; Kentucky State Police; Office of National Drug Control Policy
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Speed Trap: Racial Patterns in Traffic Stops
The Boston Globe analyzed newly released state records on traffic stops and found that "on city boulevards and rural lanes, whites are far more likely than minorities to receive written warnings instead of tickets when stopped for identical traffic offenses." The report also looked at sex and gender, and found "women, especially young women, get breaks that aren't afforded to men." In order to then quantify the cost of such unequal treatment to the public, the Globe looked at factors such as lost ticket revenue and higher insurance premiums -- concluding "the price tag...amounts to an estimated $25 million a year." But the news wasn't all bad, as the analysis revealed the Massachusetts State Police did give almost identical treatment "to all drivers, regardless of race, sex, or age....No local police department of any size was as fair as the State Police." The earlier series (Jan 6-7) deals with how statewide, black and Hispanic drivers "received traffic tickets at a rate twice their share of the population." And when they were stopped, those drivers were "50 percent more likely to have their cars searched," even though whites were more likely to be found carrying drugs. The Globe uses tables and graphics extensively to convey the results of its analysis.
Tags: traffic; tickets; ticket; race; minority; trooper; cop; police; speeding; drugs; warning; gender; profile; profiling; citation; database; CAR; statistics; public records; open records; research; tables; graphics
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An investigation into race and crime
A Toronto Star investigation finds that police officers have treated unfairly and unequally black offenders in traffic and drug cases. The findings are based on Toronto police department arrest data, which also shows violent crime appears to be a bigger problem among blacks than whites.
Tags: race; FOI; racial profiling; law enforcement; police misconduct; human rights
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DWB* (*Driving While Black)
Esquire reports on the DEA's program Operation Pipeline, an attempt to stop interstate drug trafficking that has come under file for encouraging, if not sponsoring, racial profiling. Despite numerous civil rights law suits and statistics that show an overwhelming majority of the motorists pulled over are black and Hispanic, the DEA still calls the program one of its "most successful." The Supreme Court basically handed law enforcement a license to do these kind of searches when it ruled that a cop can pull someone over for any minor traffic violation. U.S. District Judge James Carrigan wrote a criticism of the program which said, the task force, "systematically violated the constitutionally protected rights of blacks and Hispanics to travel and be free from unreasonable seizures."
Tags: racial profiling; law enforcement; operation pipeline; Drug Enforcement Agency; U.S. Supreme Court; Whren decision
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The Drug War
In trying to answer the question, "How effective is the Drug War," the National Journal reports on the drug war's history and societyal effects. Special sections are devoted to users, prevention, interdiction, treatment and punishmet as the Journal examines this complex issue.
Tags: drug war; prohibition; leagalization; Drug Enforcement Agency; drug interdiction; drug traffic; drug use; drug abuse; drug treatment; drug smuggling; drug sentencing
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Target Practice: A class-action lawsuit becomes a vehicle for racial justice
Witcher explains how some law enforcement agencies in Colorado have used use race as a factor in pulling over drivers. The Eagle County Sheriff's Department, on Colorado's Western Slope, has pulled over minority drivers for technicalities, and then gone on to search their vehicles. Sometimes it turns up drugs, but it has often violated the civil rights of law-abiding minority citizens. But the department was also found to have used racial profiling in its traffic stops. In 1996, Eagle County settled a class-action lawsuit brought by 30 plaintiffs, including a man found with three pounds of cocaine after a stop. About $600,000 of the $800,000 in settlement money was set aside to nonprofit organizations. Now organizations in Colorado are trying to figure out how to put the money to good use.
Tags: racial profiling; Eagle County Sheriff's Department; lawsuit
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Got the World on a String
Kansas City looks at the work of air traffic controllers at the Olathe Center, and reveals that they might be "just puppets or airline greed." The report finds that the controllers "may be the traffic cop in the skies, but ... [they are] ... not in charge of what happens on the ground." The story describes the stress of the job, and sheds light on the practices of random alcohol and drug testing at the traffic control center. The reporter finds that air traffic controllers "in fact are neither cops nor lords," as pilots often refuse to listen to their advice. A major finding is that controllers have a computer program that "would just make everybody fall into line," but are forced not to use it. The reason: "If such a rigid system were in place all the time, airlines couldn't pretend all those flights were leaving at 5;01 p.m."
Tags: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); National Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA); Boeing; jets; stress; pilots; airplane
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Secret Agent Man: Fashion Photographer Scores Big Off Pals In the Narcotics Trade; Baruch Vega made millions as a federal informant, but was justice served?; A private jet to Panama City
The Wall Street Journal tells the story of Baruch Vega, a fashion photographer with a secret life: Vega worked as an informant for the DEA; he had connections with the world's most-powerful drug trafficers. Vega would often persuade traffickers to surrender to U.S. lawmen. He bought their trust by appearing to have influence with the Justice Department. In reality, however, Vega was a double agent for the DEA. But, Vega's act might have worked too well: he is now charged with "receiving million-dollar fees from drug lords in return for promising to use his influence with U.S, agents to help them with their legal problems."
Tags: espionage; Baruch Vega; jet; Panama City; DEA; drug trafficking; Justice Department