FBI: Recruiters Caught In Drug Probe

[Mark E. Smith]

Dec 17, 2006

TUCSON, Ariz - A dozen Army and Marine recruiters who visited high schools were among the personnel
caught in a major FBI cocaine investigation, and some were allowed to keep working while under suspicion,
a newspaper reported Sunday.

None of the recruiters was accused of providing drugs to students.

The recruiters, who worked in the Tucson area, were targets of a federal sting called Operation Lively
Green, which ran from 2001 to 2004 and was revealed last year. So far, 69 members of the military,
prison guards, law enforcement employees and other public employees have been convicted of accepting
bribes to help smuggle cocaine.

The Arizona Daily Star reviewed the investigation and court documents and found that the FBI allowed
many recruiters to stay on the job even though they were targeted by the investigation. Some were
still recruiting three years after they were photographed running drugs in uniform, the newspaper said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-military-recruiters-cocaine,0,2749570.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

Perhaps this article is being a bit judgmental. Drug smuggling has often been an important function
for certain segments of our military, and who is to say these gentlemen weren't recruiting young people
interested in that specialized line of work?

[libhill]

1. yuppers -

Gotta keep those cards and letters coming in for the CIA...

[rodeodance]

2. even allowed on HS campuses

......Military officials say they kept the recruiters on the job because the FBI told them to leave the suspects alone to avoid jeopardizing the sting. The military said it also didn't know some recruiters were under investigation, the newspaper reported.

Military officials say the criminal acts by recruiters were rare out of the thousands of recruiters working across the country. "This was an isolated incident," said Marine Corps recruiting spokeswoman Janice Hagar.

A governing board member of the Tucson Unified School District, Judy Burns, criticized the FBI for allowing the recruiters to stay on the job so long.

"It's ludicrous to me that the FBI would leave these people in place and allow them onto our high school campuses," Burns said.

Special Agent Deb McCarley said the FBI generally performs risk assessments before deciding to keep suspects who work in public positions on the job during undercover investigations.

[Kagemusha]

3. It's a judgment call.

I don't envy the person who had to weigh having these people on campus and the need to get the proper evidence so that charges properly brought would result in a proper, legal conviction. After all, the only thing I can think of that's worse would be the FBI being unable to prove a darn thing and the Army saying, "These people have committed no wrong. They are innocent. We're sending them back out to do their good work." In my book, that would be worse.

[Bjorn Against]

4. Military Recruiters caught in drug probe

TUCSON, Ariz. - A dozen Army and Marine recruiters who visited high schools were among the personnel caught in a major FBI cocaine investigation, and some were allowed to keep working while under suspicion, a newspaper reported Sunday.

None of the recruiters was accused of providing drugs to students.

The recruiters, who worked in the Tucson area, were targets of a federal sting called Operation Lively Green, which ran from 2001 to 2004 and was revealed last year. So far, 69 members of the military, prison guards, law enforcement employees and other public employees have been convicted of accepting bribes to help smuggle cocaine.

The Arizona Daily Star reviewed the investigation and court documents and found that the FBI allowed many recruiters to stay on the job even though they were targeted by the investigation. Some were still recruiting three years after they were photographed running drugs in uniform, the newspaper said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061217/ap_on_re_us/military_recruiters_cocaine

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. Lively Green... good thing there was no

AF, Navy or CG recruiters it would have to be...

what? Snarky Blue?

[bemildred]

6. "Don't ask, don't tell". Typical hypocrisy. nt

[peacetalksforall]

8. Another fuzzy news release. It's almost like it's designed to

obfuscate.

What do I have wrong here...

It was in the Tuscon 'area'.
69 people were caught.
x number out of (69?) military recruiters were involved?
The rest were prison guards, civic employees, and law enforcement employees?
Do we assume that all 69 were from a single sting? All part of the same operation?
Why would it take three years in one city to follow 69 people - would you say the dealers weren't very active?
Did the military recruiters never sell to kids?

Did the military recruiters also use drugs? Did they use them while talking to kids? On public territory?

It's stated that they allowed these recruiters to continue to sell drugs and they had photographs - did they continue to allow it because they didn't have photographs of the other three groups?

If you know how this works - is three years typical?

What if the military had transferred them out of Tuscon requiring the assumed 'team' to operate without the recruiters? Or recruit new recruiters?

I think this case is quite important. I have a feeling that this is not a simple or typical crime sting.

[sweetheart]

7. and the crime was, recruiters visiting high schools

The crime was not drugs, that's just a ruse to screw over some more people.

Statistics says those recruiters are nonwhite:


2 more people in the concentration camp war crime: