Police informant: My reward? A death sentence

[Speck Tater]

Source: KOMO TV

TACOMA -- A man made a career of catching criminals around Seattle but says his reward now amounts to a death sentence.

The drug informant says his life is now in danger because of his quest for citizenship.

Ernesto Gamboa is an undocumented immigrant but has spent the last 14 years helping police bust narcotics operations and exposing their ties to foreign cartels.

A detective, who asked to be anonymous, says Gamboa caught more bad guys as an informant than some officers do in their lifetimes.

Read more: http://www.kval.com/news/local/50949612.html

[Lance_Boyle]

1. rot in hell

punk-ass snitch.

[imdjh]

4. Please tell me the sarcasm smilie is missing.

This guy wasn't busting Justin and Brandon selling a little weed to Heather and Ethan. He was busting murdering gangsters. I'm for legalization, but I seriously doubt that gangsters will simply go away with the end of prohibition, the mafia didn't.

[Lance_Boyle]

6. This guy was ONE OF the murdering gangsters

while simultaneously snitching to rid himself of competition. Rotting in hell is too good for him. He should rot in El Salvador first, in bunches of tiny little unidentifiable pieces.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. And you know this how? nt

[proteus_lives]

14. Look who thinks he's Scarface!

So this man should die for helping the police against drug-dealers?

Wow! you're hardcore, are you a gangsta?

Tell me why does he deserve to die Mr. Toughie?

[Alhena]

22. Wow, we've got a hard core poster here, folks

[Javaman]

27. Everyone is a junior G man these days.

LOL

[rcrush]

2. Well yeah

Spend most of your life snitching on drug lords you are gonna make some enemies.

[imdjh]

5. We gave pirates citizenship and pensions for their assistance in the Revolution

I'm not saying that I don't support legalization, but this man performed services for the US government with a reasonable belief he would be taken care of in exchange. It's looks like he will be taken care of, but not in the good way.

I also oppose illegal and excessive legal immigration, but there is a huge difference between economic refugees and those seeking asylum.

[Flaneur]

8. It should be a lesson for snitches everywhere:

The guys you're snitching to don't give a shit about you. They'll use you up and throw you away.

[Thothmes]

24. those were privateers, not pirates

they raided British shipping under letters of Marque issued by the Continental Congress and by some of the Colonial governments.

[redqueen]

28. A distinction with hardly any difference. (nt)

[Thothmes]

29. Other than that you are authorized to seize enemy shipping

by a government. It does give you some cover against piracy charges if captured.

[Hello_Kitty]

3. I'd say his life is in danger no matter where he is. eom

[Romulox]

7. You mean there's a downside to being a duplicitous Narc? Heaven forfend!

:nopity:

[Speck Tater]

9. So the consensus of replies is "It's OK to let the drug lords sell crack to your kids...

... but snitching warrants the death penalty."

You are a sick bunch of mofos.

[uncle ray]

10. coughbullshitstrawmancough.

so YOU think it's ok for one drug lord to sell crack to your kids so as long as he's narcing out his competitors, so we should give him citizenship. as a reward.

rats are only rats for one reason, to keep their own asses out of prison.

[Mz Pip]

13. There is nothing in

this article that says this guy ever dealt drugs. There are many reasons people become confidential informants and not all of them involve keeping their own asses out of jail.

[uncle ray]

15. i humbly retract, you are right, i CAN think of another reason.

to keep your ass from being deported.

[Mz Pip]

16. Sarcasm aside

Confidential informants are often people who have had violence/fraud/drugs/vice touch their lives or the lives of their families in some way. Some live in neighborhoods that are riddled with gangs and crime. CIs are important, not just for drug crimes but for fraud and organized crime.

Don't dismiss their value to law enforcement. They risk their lives in the same way that undercover police do and they deserve respect, not ridicule.

[PassingTimeHere]

17. Some of these replies are making me have second thoughts about joining here

[Supply Side Jesus]

19. No time like the present!

[PassingTimeHere]

20. Well, I'm planning on hanging around a while, because I don't really believe

that all progressives are in favor of drug cartel criminals.

Apparently, some are, however. :(

[mitchum]

11. Awww...you mean his rat jacket isn't bulletproof?

[Supply Side Jesus]

18. Effective CIs don't just happen have information

As effective as this guy supposedly was, he was knee deep in the business also. He made his career in other ways. This Reporter had no clue what they were writing about. Trying to make this guy sound like DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER. Now he just wanted to take some time off as a CI? Lol Being a CI is not a full-time gig. Pick up a phone, drop a dime, your job is done. It sucks playing both sides of the fence, sometimes the fence falls on you.

[Speck Tater]

21. So your ideology trumps what works. That's exactly the justification for abstinence only.

It doesn't matter to the RW that abstinence only doesn't work, it's ideologically pure and that's all that matters.

It doesn't matter to you that other methods of intelligence gathering are not nearly as effective, as long as what the police do is ideologically pure. That's RW-style reasoning.

This is the real world, not fantasy land. Ideological purity is not a workable philosophy of life. (Still, as young people, we all seem to go through the ideologically pure stage. Fortunately we outgrow it.)

[Supply Side Jesus]

23. uh...no

What I'm saying is, when you play Yojimbo, don't be surprised you end up in a spot of trouble. But don't let that stop you from labeling. He only snitched for his own motivations, not for what is right. So, no, I don't have sympathy when they get caught up in a situation of their own making. Can you wrap your mind around that?

[Speck Tater]

25. Clearly we are not going to agree on this issue. I guess I'm OK with that. nt

[baldguy]

26. "(Gamboa)'s not getting the consideration he deserves for all the years of work that he's done."

Sounds like he wants to go straight, and the ICE is threatening him.

[FormerOstrich]

30. damn shame that reporters can't

write very good articles. Worse shame that journalism seems to be a thing of the past.

The author of this piece would have us to believe that this guy has been putting away the "cartel" members for soo many years yet....(emphasis mine in the following quotes)

A man made a career of catching criminals around Seattle but says his reward now amounts to a death sentence.

Ernesto Gamboa is an undocumented immigrant but has spent the last 14 years helping police bust narcotics operations and exposing their ties to foreign cartels.

Soooo he was helping to catch criminals around Seattle. He apparently had a a wealth of knowledge about Seattle criminals' ties to foreign cartels? His knowledge of foreign cartels spanned 14 years (a career mind you).

Gamboa figures drug lords he put away will kill him in El Salvador. He hoped to stay in the United States. ICE agents never made any promises, but they apparently kept the citizenship conversation going.

Soooo he put these "drug lords away" but they are freely roaming El Salvador, awaiting his deportation after 14 years and standing ready so they can exterminate him?

Furthermore, the author would lead us to believe it was ICE he was working with for the past fourteen years. But....didn't it say working with Police? ICE probably doesn't have anonymous detectives putting away the big bad drug lords in Seattle. So how could have ICE inferred something about citizenship during that time frame? I think not!

[Supply Side Jesus]

31. WTF!

Don't be spouting that logic around these here parts!

I mean, really...you expect some journalist to actually do any homework instead of just dictating somebodies complaints?!

[FormerOstrich]

32. heheheh

you are correct...what was I thinking??

It really is so pathetic though and it is not isolated to any specific publication/geographic area/demographics nor nothin'