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Police in Karnataka have released <keyword id="852496" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="siddhanth-kapoor" source="Orion">Siddhanth Kapoor</keyword>, son of veteran Bollywood actor <keyword id="17594" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shakti-kapoor" source="Orion">Shakti Kapoor</keyword>, on bail after he was arrested for consuming drugs at a party in Bengaluru. Along with four others, Siddhanth Kapoor, who is also an actor, was released late Monday night by the Halasuru police in the state capital. The police said that he has been asked to appear for inquiry on Tuesday at 11 a.m. A case has been registered under IPC Sections 20 A, 22 B, 27 B. The four other arrested persons were Akhil Soni, business manager of Mind Fire Solutions; Harjoth Singh, an industrialist; Hani, a digital marketing entrepreneur; and Akhil, a photographer. On Sunday night, the police seized 7 grams of MDMA crystals and 10 grams of marijuana after conducting a raid on the rave party organised at the five-star The Park hotel in Bengaluru. Meanwhile, officers from the Excise Department have also visited the hotel and conducted an inquiry. The arrests were made after medical tests confirmed that Siddhanth Kapoor and the four others had consumed drugs. The police are trying to find out details of other persons who attended the party. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/mukesh-ambanis-viacom18-bags-digital-rights-of-ipl-while-star-grabs-tv-rights/articleshow/92181172.cms">Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 bags digital rights of IPL, while Star grabs TV rights</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/retail-inflation-eases-to-7-04-in-may-as-food-prices-soften/articleshow/92183623.cms">Retail inflation eases to 7.04% in May as food prices soften</a>

Shakti Kapoor's son released on bail a day after he was arrested on drug charges

<keyword id="6354765" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tollywood" source="Orion">Tollywood</keyword> actor <keyword id="84792" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rana-Daggubati" source="Orion">Rana Daggubati</keyword> on Wednesday appeared before the <keyword id="6357808" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Enforcement-Directorate" source="Orion">Enforcement Directorate</keyword> (ED) in connection with a money-laundering probe linked to a 2017 <keyword id="41015" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="drug-case" source="Orion">drug case</keyword>. The 'Baahubali' fame actor reached the ED office here around 10 a.m. and walked in as a posse of security personnel escorted him through a battery of media lensmen vying with each other to capture the moment. Rana is likely to be questioned by ED sleuths about his bank details and financial transactions as part of the probe into suspected links of some celebrities with the accused involved in the case. Rana is the fifth Tollywood personality to appear before ED. Director <keyword id="119412" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Puri-Jagannadh" source="Orion">Puri Jagannadh</keyword> and actors Charmee Kaur, <keyword id="621559" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rakul-Preet-Singh" source="Orion">Rakul Preet Singh</keyword> and Nandu were questioned since August 31. The ED had last month issued notices to 10 persons connected to Tollywood and two others including a private club manager as part of a money laundering probe linked to the case related to the smuggling of 'Class A' narcotic substances, including LSD and MDMA. Nandu was questioned for more than eight hours on Tuesday. Main accused in the case Calvin Mascarenhas and two others were also grilled by the ED sleuths on Tuesday. Actors Ravi Teja, Navdeep. Mumaith Khan, Tanish and Ravi Teja's driver Srinivas have also been summoned by the ED in connection the drugs racket which was busted with the arrest of drug peddlers in 2017. Rana and Rakul Preet did not figure in the list of Tollywood celebrities questioned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Telangana's prohibition and excise department in 2017. However, Rakul Preet was questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau, Mumbai, last year in an alleged drugs nexus in Bollywood. The drugs racket was busted on July 2, 2017 when customs officials arrested Calvin Mascarenhas, a musician, and two others and seized drugs worth Rs 30 lakh from their possession. They had reportedly told the investigators that they are supplying drugs to film celebrities, software engineers, and even students of some corporate schools. Mobile numbers of some Tollywood celebrities were allegedly found in their contact lists. The excise department had constituted SIT for a comprehensive probe. A total of 12 cases were registered, 30 people were arrested while 62 individuals including 11 people connected with Tollywood were examined by the SIT under section 67 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and section 161 of Criminal Procedure Code. The SIT had collected blood, hair, nail and other samples from some of those who appeared before it for question and sent them for analysis. The SIT filed charge sheet in eight out of 12 cases. It, however, gave clean chit to the film personalities who were questioned as part of the investigation. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/protests-planned-against-apples-controversial-child-safety-features-on-the-eve-of-iphone-13-launch/articleshow/86032670.cms">Protests planned against Apple’s controversial child safety features on the eve of iPhone 13 launch</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/heres-how-to-buy-ola-electric-scooter-s1-and-s1-pro/articleshow/86032630.cms">Ola e-scooters go on sale: Here’s how you can purchase it</a>

'Baahubali' actor Rana Daggubati appears before ED in 2017 drug case

<div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image">AP Photo/Paul Fraughton, Pool<keyword id="130981" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Utah">Utah</keyword> <keyword id="18182" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Judge">judge</keyword> Virginia Ward, 46, pleaded guilty to felony drug charges on Tuesday.</div></div>A Utah judge has pleaded guilty to felony drug possession after police caught her delivering the pain killer Oxycodone to her dealer, <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56785338-78/ward-court-documents-drug.html.csp">The Salt Lake City Tribune</a> reports. 
Virginia Ward, 46, a judge since 2002, hasn't sat behind the bench in almost 5 months. She presided over many cases of misdemeanor drug charges, but she's now seeing the courtroom from a drug defendant's perspective.
Ward faces up to 15 years in prison for possessing the highly addictive pain pill. She was investigated by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which staked out a UPS store where she allegedly picked up drugs.
The DEA ultimately confiscated 398 Oxycodone pills from two shipments, the <a href="http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/27/2967231/judge-takes-plea-deal-on-drug.html">Associated Press</a> reported.
Ward, who said she used Oxycodone for neck pain, admitted knowing that her dealer would illegally distribute the pills, according to the Tribune. She said she completed a similar transaction with him before, in exchange for some of the Oxycodone.
She resigned on Aug. 19. In a letter to Salt Lake City Justice Court Director Curtis Preece, Ward wrote, "I ... deeply apologize."

Judge Who Presided Over Many Drug Cases Admits To Being A Drug Mule

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Fetty Wap pleaded guilty Monday to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess controlled substances. </li><li>He now faces at least a five-year prison sentence and has not requested release on bond. </li></ul>Rapper Fetty Wap pleaded guilty on Monday at the US district court in the eastern district of New York to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess controlled substances, according to an indictment seen by Insider.He now faces a five-year mandatory minimum sentence. He did not make a request in court to be released on bond and remains in custody, according to court documents.Fetty Wap — whose real name is William Junior Maxwell II — <a href="https://www.insider.com/fetty-wap-arrest-drug-charges-2021-10">was arrested at Citi Field in October</a> on federal drug charges. The rapper, known for the hit 2014 single "Trap Queen," was one of six men taken into custody by federal agents in the drug case at that time. Prosecutors said that he participated in a drug trafficking ring that distributed more than 100 kilograms of drugs, including heroin and fentanyl in New York and New Jersey.Prosecutors said at the time that Maxwell, New Jersey correction officer Anthony Cyntje, Anthony Leonardi, his brother Robert Leonardi, Brian Sullivan, and Kavaughn Wiggins obtained the narcotics on the West Coast and transported the drugs to Suffolk County, New York, via the US Postal Service and in hidden compartments.Maxwell was initially released on bond in that case, but he was <a href="https://www.insider.com/fetty-wap-arrested-facetime-death-threat-allegation-prosecutors-2022-8">taken back onto custody earlier this month</a> after being arrested in Newark, New Jersey, after prosecutors alleged that he flashed a gun and threatened to kill someone during a December FaceTime call. <div type="image" title="Fetty Wap" height="628" width="784" msid="93716754" hostid="261" sizebytes="7904"></div>A recorded copy of that call was entered into evidence in the case, according to the motion to revoke his bond.In it, Maxwell can be heard saying "Imma kill you and everybody you with," and repeatedly threatening murder, according to the prosecutors.The man on the other end of the call referred to Fetty Wap as "a rat" and he responded by saying, "Your man is a rat," according to prosecutors.His conditions of release in the drug case prohibited him from violating the law or possessing guns, so his bond was revoked in the drug case. Robert Leonardi and Cyntje have already pleaded guilty to drug charges in the October case, and Cyntje pleaded guilty to one count of using a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking crime.

Fetty Wap faces at least a 5 year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a federal drug crime

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/US-Mideast-Summit/a000f301b1b046dd8b119ce53cd7600a/98/0">Susan Walsh/AP</a>Security guards at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, November 26, 2007.</div></div></div><ul><li>The Naval Academy is bringing charges against a midshipmen implicated in a drug-distribution case.</li><li>The school has already dismissed or punished several students for drug-related offenses.</li><li>The academy's superintendent says the case is not part of a wider problem, though students have been disciplined for drug-related offenses in the past.</li></ul>The US Naval Academy has said it will charge a midshipman who's been accused of allegedly dealing cocaine and other narcotics in what may be one of the biggest drug cases at the school in years.An Article 32 hearing is scheduled for a military court at Washington Navy Yard to determine if the case should head to a court-martial, academy spokesman Cmdr. David McKinney <a href="https://apnews.com/9cc90a2d8fc44b0f902cde9a6dd9bf00/Naval-Academy-charges-midshipman-in-drug-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the Associated Press</a>. An Article 32 hearing is similar to a grand-jury proceeding in a civilian court. The accused was not named.The charges include failure to obey a general regulation, making a false official statement, possession of illegal substances, possession of illegal substances with intent to distribute, use of illegal substances, and distribution of illegal substances.Some of the charges stem from an investigation started in November by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Naval Academy superintendent Vice Adm. Ted Carter, who was given the results of the investigation, decided to recommend the charges.Some of charges are related to a June 15 arrest at the Firefly music festival in Dover, Delaware. Police arrested two Ohio men after they allegedly sold ecstasy to undercover police officers. Upon searching the men's car, police say they found 33 grams of ecstasy, 4.6 grams of cocaine, 1.1 grams of marijuana, and a digital scale.The Navy investigation that started in November has led to the dismissal of six midshipmen for using illegal substances. Another five have been administratively disciplined for drug-related violations. The illicit substances involved were cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine, and hallucinogenic mushrooms, <a href="https://apnews.com/9cc90a2d8fc44b0f902cde9a6dd9bf00/Naval-Academy-charges-midshipman-in-drug-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the AP</a>.Carter, the academy superintendent, gave an update on the investigation during a Board of Visitors meeting in April. He <a href="https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2018/04/23/naval-academy-head-says-court-martial-possible-in-drug-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said at the time</a> that the suspected distributor was a student and that the academy had made changes to its urinalysis drug-testing."Every midshipman will get tested at least three times a year, and they won't know when it is," Carter said at the time. Carter said that "some very responsible midshipmen" had reported the drug use to academy officials. Carter denied that there was a wider drug-use problem. "I have full confidence that we don't have a drug issue at the Naval Academy," he <a href="https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2018/04/23/naval-academy-head-says-court-martial-possible-in-drug-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in April</a>, attributing the case to "some bad actors."Between December 2010 and August 2011, 16 students at the academy <a href="https://apnews.com/9cc90a2d8fc44b0f902cde9a6dd9bf00/Naval-Academy-charges-midshipman-in-drug-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were dismissed</a> for the use or the possession of "spice," or synthetic marijuana. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-west-point-united-states-military-academy-army-cadets-reception-day-2018-7">INSIDE WEST POINT: What it's really like for new Army cadets on their first day</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

A Naval Academy midshipman will be charged in what may be the school's biggest drug-ring case in years

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Mario Tama/Getty Images</div></div></div>The argument for reducing drug sentencing in the US is well-worn: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-war-on-drugs-changed-americas-prison-population-2014-4">Prisons are overcrowded</a>, and <a href="http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/streeracpripov.html">the laws disproportionately affect the poor</a>.But if we need to relax drug laws, then what kind of drug laws should we have?<a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2646984">A new paper</a> makes a remarkably good case for treating drug offenses like white collar crimes. The authors - legal scholars <a href="https://www.law.stanford.edu/profile/thea-johnson">Thea Johnson</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Osler">Mark Osler </a>- argue that dealing drugs should be treated like other business crimes since it's a profit-based enterprise.In drug cases, judges sometimes mete out harsh sentences based on the weight of drugs tied to a particular defendant rather than how much money they made. A Florida woman<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephanie-george-and-life-after-prison-2015-8"> named Stephanie George</a>, for example, got a life sentence in 1997 because she let her former boyfriend keep drugs at her house. She never got rich off his scheme and struggled just to make ends meet."When a white-collar criminal - even one as outrageously criminal as Bernie Madoff - receives an effective life sentence, it is unusual, yet the same sentence is wholly unremarkable in non-violent drug cases," Johnson and Osler write.Drug crimes should be punished by how much illicit profit offenders gain, the paper argues, not by arbitrary factors like drug weight.Punishment for drug crimes haven't always been so harsh. They've largely been around since the 1970s, when President Richard Nixon passed mandatory sentencing laws and increasing the size of federal drug control agencies as part his "war on drugs," according to the <a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/new-solutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drug-war">Drug Policy Alliance</a>. That war morphed into what the paper describes as "an all-out war on crime that reshaped the executive branch into a powerful crime-fighting force."Drug-dealers became the enemies, and prosecutors became the heroes. The shift in approach wasn't based on empirical evidence linking drugs and other types of crime. Rather, it came from an emotionally driven frenzy that pushed lawmakers into passing tougher drug crime laws, the paper argues. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">ACLUStephanie and her sister, Wendy, hug on the day of her release.</div></div></div>Take the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Drug_Abuse_Act_of_1986">Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1986</a>. It called for felony charges and mandatory minimum sentences for anyone caught with either powder cocaine or crack cocaine, but the threshold for the amount of crack cocaine was at .01% of the amount of powder cocaine. The bill was rushed into passage following the death of Len Bias, a former basketball star at the University of Maryland. Earlier that year, during the NBA draft, Bias died of a cocaine overdose. Many people believed he <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=bias">died of a crack overdose</a>, though.<a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/06/19/len_bias_cocaine_tragedy_still_affecting_us_drug_law/">According to Eric Sterling</a>, the president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, both parties in Congress seized hold of the narrative to pass the Anti-Drug Abuse Act and other harsh anti-drug laws that have by now been shown to disproportionately affect minorities. They didn't carefully consider evidence about the harm of these drugs, such as whether crack cocaine is actually more dangerous than powder cocaine - the .01% figure is completely arbitrary, <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/06/19/len_bias_cocaine_tragedy_still_affecting_us_drug_law/">Sterling told Salon</a>.With a more rational understanding of drug crimes, it's easy to see they're actually very similar to white collar crimes. The heart of the <a href="http://www.fda.gov/regulatoryinformation/legislation/ucm148726.htm">Controlled Substances Act</a> says it is illegal "to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, or possess with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, a controlled substance." All of those actions are business transactions, and it makes sense to tie punishment to the money involved in the crime.Treating drug crimes like white collar ones puts drug crimes in proportion to the amount of money made. "Contrary to the myth of the drug king pin, drug offenders tend to be poor," the paper's authors argue. "Most drug dealers are not Avon Barksdale, the infamous drug lord who controlled most of the West Baltimore drug trade on the T.V. show, 'The Wire.'" Because so many offenders are poor, it doesn't make sense to keep the harsh sentencing guidelines, particularly when prisons in the US are already overcrowded. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/song-made-using-coins-drummer-music-video-2015-7">This drummer created a whole song using only the sound of coins</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="s1ZDM1djoe2BbhjqVRCIwkLubOlkcQgk" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

There's an excellent argument for why drug offenses should be treated like white collar crimes

<table class="image-container float_right" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div>Comedy Central</td></tr></table>The nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice had sharp words for a prosecutor who<a href="http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2013/02_-_February/Justice_Sotomayor_laments_prosecutor_s_racially_charged_question/"> asked an African-American defendant a racist question in a drug case,</a> Reuters reports.
"You've got African-Americans, you've got Hispanics, you've got a bag full of money," the unnamed prosecutor asked during a trial, according to Reuters. "Does that tell you - a light bulb doesn't go off in your head and say, this is a drug deal?" 
The Supreme Court refused to take the case and potentially give the defendant a retrial, but Sotomayor took the unusual step of writing a statement that condemned the prosecutor's words, Reuters reported. 
Sotomayor wrote that the prosecutor "tapped a deep and sorry vein of racial prejudice that has run through the history of criminal justice in our nation," and that he had attempted to "substitute racial stereotype for evidence."
<a href="http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2013/02_-_February/Justice_Sotomayor_laments_prosecutor_s_racially_charged_question/">Head over to Reuters to read more about the drug case at issue.</a>

Justice Sonia Sotomayor Condemns A Prosecutor's Shockingly Racist Question

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Fetty Wap was arrested in Newark, NJ on Monday after prosecutors accused him of flashing a gun in a threatening FaceTime call.</li><li>The charges are in violation of his bond on an earlier drug arrest and he was taken into custody.</li></ul>Rapper Fetty Wap was arrested in Newark, New Jersey on Monday for allegedly flashing a gun and threatening to kill someone during a December FaceTime call, according to federal prosecutors. Fetty Wap — whose real name is Willie Junior Maxwell II — was <a href="https://www.insider.com/fetty-wap-arrest-drug-charges-2021-10">arrested at Citi Field on drug charges in October</a> and, at that time, was released from custody on bond. The rapper, known for the hit 2014 single "Trap Queen," was one of six men taken into custody by federal agents in the drug case. New York federal prosecutors now say a December call and alleged threat were in violation of his bond terms set in November. <div type="image" title="Fetty Wap" height="628" width="784" msid="93440195" hostid="261"></div>Prosecutors allege in the motion to revoke bond that Maxwell was on a FaceTime call with an unidentified man on December 11 when he pointed the gun at the screen and threatened him.A recorded copy of the call was entered into evidence in the case, according to the motion to revoke his bond.In it, Maxwell can be heard saying "Imma kill you and everybody you with," and repeatedly threatening murder, according to the prosecutors.The man on the other end of the call referred to Fetty Wap as "a rat" and he responded by saying, "Your man is a rat," according to prosecutors.Maxwell's previous arrest stems from allegations that he participated in a drug trafficking ring that distributed more than 100 kilograms of drugs, including heroin and fentanyl in New York and New Jersey.Prosecutors said at the time that Maxwell, New Jersey correction officer Anthony Cyntje, Anthony Leonardi, his brother Robert Leonardi, Brian Sullivan, and Kavaughn Wiggins obtained the narcotics on the West Coast and transported the drugs to Suffolk County, New York, via the US Postal Service and in hidden compartments.His conditions of release on that case prohibited him from violating the law or possessing guns. On Monday, Judge Steven Locke revoked his bond, meaning the 31-year-old rapper will be returning to jail to await his trial.

Fetty Wap arrested after prosecutors allege he threatened to kill someone over FaceTime

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Elizabeth WilliamsTtwo nephews of Venezuela's first lady, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, second from left, 29, and Franqui Francisco Flores De Freitas, right, 30, appear in Manhattan federal court at their arraignment on cocaine-smuggling charges on December 17, 2015.</div></div></div>During testimony in September, two informants taking part in a high-profile international-drug-smuggling case <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-crime-idUSKCN11F2U9" target="_blank">admitted to lying</a> to US officials, which could affect the outcome of the trial against two nephews of the wife of the Venezuelan president.The informants, a father-son pair, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-crime-idUSKCN11F2U9" target="_blank">admitted</a> in court that they had lied to US narcotics investigators in order to smuggle drugs themselves while they worked with the US to investigate Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Cilia Flores, the wife of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.Flores and Campo have pleaded <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/venezuela-first-lady-s-brother-reportedly-set-up-international-drug-deal" target="_blank">not guilty</a> to charges of conspiring to smuggle nearly 1,800 pounds of cocaine to the US.According to testimony from a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent, a major drug-trafficking informant in Honduras reported to US authorities in October 2015 that a Venezuelan official <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-links-venezuelan-official-related-to-maduro-to-drug-probe-2016-9" target="_blank">believed</a> to be related to the country's first lady was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-links-venezuelan-official-related-to-maduro-to-drug-probe-2016-9" target="_blank">going to send</a> his nephew to Honduras to meet with drug traffickers working as US informants. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Ariana Cubillos/APVenezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with his wife, Cilia.</div></div></div>That informant, who was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-links-venezuelan-official-related-to-maduro-to-drug-probe-2016-9" target="_blank">killed soon after</a>, "indicated that these individuals wanted to fly drug-laden planes to Honduras with flight plans," <a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/09/09/dea-agent-venezuela-narco-nephews-used-presidential-runway-to-traffic-drugs/" target="_blank">according</a> to the DEA agent.According to testimony and court documents, the nephews met with the father-son pair, who were posing as Mexican traffickers, in Venezuela to plan the alleged smuggling scheme. The 55-year-old father and 34-year-old son have worked as <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-crime-idUSKCN11F2U9" target="_blank">undercover informants</a> for law-enforcement agencies in the US and in South America for years, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. But recently the duo began lying to US Drug Enforcement Administration officials in order to smuggle drugs themselves, they <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-crime-idUSKCN11F2U9" target="_blank">admitted</a> to US authorities. They are both now in jail after pleading <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-crime-idUSKCN11F2U9" target="_blank">guilty</a> to related charges."You'd been lying to them for years?" John Zach, a lawyer for Campo Flores, asked CS-2, the designation given to the younger informant. "Yes I did lie to them," <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-crime-idUSKCN11F2U9" target="_blank">he replied</a>.The father also <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article100874992.html" target="_blank">admitted</a> to abusing cocaine and for deceiving US officials and selling drugs for four years. He <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-crime-idUSKCN11F2U9" target="_blank">testified</a> that prosecutors became upset with him when he admitted to visiting prostitutes twice during a trip to Caracas to meet the accused nephews, rather than just once, as he had previously said. He <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article100874992.html" target="_blank">also said</a> for the first time that he had allowed a friend of his son to be present during one of the meetings with Flores and Campo.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Thomson ReutersHandout photo of Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas stand with Haitian law-enforcement officers in this November 12, 2015, photo after their arrest in Port Au Prince, Haiti.</div></div></div>Suspicions about the conduct of the informants in this case have arisen at the same time as the DEA has been criticized for potential "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dea-exposed-itself-to-fraud-waste-and-abuse-and-violated-rules-2016-9" target="_blank">fraud, waste, and abuse</a>" in its conduct with confidential sources over the last few years.Sources like the father-son duo inherently raise issues in some prosecutions, given their typical activities. "A lot of them come from a criminal background," Mike Vigil, a former chief of <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider. "And we in the government use them to get in-depth information that we would not normally get, and as a result of that a lot of times they come under attack by <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> attorneys."To bolster cases relying on confidential or undercover informants, investigators will try to independently confirm the details such sources pass along, Vigil said. "In the case of the nephews, yeah, a couple of the informants have questionable backgrounds," Vigil, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-really-like-to-work-for-the-dea-2016-8" target="_blank">who worked undercover in Colombia</a>, added. "But they provided information, and who was the biggest corroborator of that information? It was the nephews, in terms of statements they made when they were arrested in Port au Prince and then being transported to the United States, and then during undercover negotiations."These statements and <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/venezuela-first-lady-s-brother-reportedly-set-up-international-drug-deal" target="_blank">confessions</a> the nephews signed after their arrest have come into question, however, and the defense has made <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-venezuela-first-ladys-nephews-say-they-thought-us-arrest-was-kidnapping-2016-7" target="_blank">an effort to suppress them</a>, arguing that the nephews thought their arrest was a kidnapping and that they were not <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-venezuela-first-ladys-nephews-say-they-thought-us-arrest-was-kidnapping-2016-7" target="_blank">made fully aware</a> of their rights while they were being questioned in the hours after they were detained. The two were "<a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/narco-nephews-of-venezuela-first-lady-liaised-with-farc-us-prosecutors" target="_blank">coerced</a>" into making the statements, according to the defense.The misconduct of the informants, coupled with questions raised by the defense about how those purportedly voluntary <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article103751506.html" target="_blank">confessions</a> were acquired, have put the stability of the case in doubt."If I were [US prosecutors], I would be nervous," David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who oversaw the narcotics division at the US Attorney's Office in Miami, <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article103751506.html" target="_blank">told McClatchy</a> in late September. "The way things are going, the case is not getting better. It's getting weaker."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Elizabeth WilliamsA US marshal stands guard in the background as Francisco Flores, center in blue shirt, and Efrain Campos, second from right, make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court with their attorneys on November 12, 2015.</div></div></div>"The issue is that these individuals are not choir boys," Vigil said, referring to the pair of informants. "A lot of times, when [such informants are] off on their own, they do things that are criminal, without question. Not all of them, but some of them ... But it's impossible for us to monitor them 24/7."Details that emerged during the testimony has also led to questions about the scope of the case US prosecutors are seeking to make against the nephews. The DEA agent <a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/09/09/dea-agent-venezuela-narco-nephews-used-presidential-runway-to-traffic-drugs/" target="_blank">testified</a> that the two nephews said they would have the run of the Caracas airport and the ability to move drug cargos through it.But, as <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/venezuela-first-lady-s-brother-reportedly-set-up-international-drug-deal" target="_blank">Insight Crime notes</a>, the involvement of Venezuelan official who first contacted the DEA informant suggests that the two nephews may not have been the masterminds and that they could be being used as cover for a larger group of traffickers operating out of Venezuela. The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-indicts-venezuela-officials-drug-trafficking-2016-8" target="_blank">US has previously indicted high-level military officials</a> on drug-trafficking charges.The case, which is slated to go to trial on November 7, likely hinges on whether the judge allows the defendants' statements and audio and video of their meetings with the informants to be entered into evidence."If those declarations are not thrown out," Vigil said, "I'm of the opinion, 100%, that they'll be convicted." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-cocaine-prices-barely-moved-america-2016-9">Why the price of cocaine in America has barely moved in decades</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="c2dzByNTE6gAAJt4WayDn8L0dE9S14MR" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "drug case" and got 9 results

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