Mods, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this, and if that's the case, please remove and just let me know for future reference. I am new here and admittedly do not know all the rules. Thank you!
Firstly, I want to say that I stand on a more pro-drug stance. I initially became a CI as part of getting out of prison. While I am mostly pro-drug, I do believe in self-preservation above all. I believe possession of all drugs should be decriminalized, and the producers of the hard, more dangerous stuff, be held legally accountable. I actually encourage some drug use with marijuana and hallucinogens with proper education and responsibility. When I was a CI (confidential informant), I felt conflicted with my beliefs and eventually quit because all the targets that popped up generally sold marijuana or concentrates and I believe this shouldn't even be a fine. The money was no longer worth it as it was weighing on my conscious.
That being said, I was a CI for Nebraska State Patrol (NSP), and I've been told that each state handles their CI work differently, but most of the warnings to be made here will transfer over from state to state and apply to anyone that this information has any real world significance to. I'll try to make this as easy to understand as possible and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'm here to help. One thing to note, is in order to provide a solid case, CI's are required to make two buys on a target. Now, this may change in other states, but if we didn't get two buys, it didn't go to the county attorney. They want an airtight case before even approaching a county attorney with evidence. This is directed to plugs who want to be extra careful. I know most of this is tedious and requires a lot of observation, but if you're serious about not getting caught, one should follow these notes.
1. Something to watch out for is people who want to get something from you or someone you know on a different day. If he says "Yeah, I'll come get it Monday" and it's a Saturday, that COULD mean he's giving his handler time to get other officers available for a controlled buy to do surveillance. This only takes one day to do. Narcs don't like doing a same day buy and in my whole time, we never did.
2. Watch out for clients who went to jail previously. When I was arrested for concentrates, a narc approached me in jail and said he wanted me to be his CI. I didn't do this because at the time, the county attorney had a hard on for me, and wouldn't approve me to be released to do a controlled buy. They approach you saying if you help, charges will be dropped. It's a huge incentive especially if you're looking at felony charges. You need not be concerned if they went to jail for something non-drug possession related, as narcs wouldn't be approaching them in the first place. Still, if they're serious charges, you may want to be weary of dealing with that person for a while. Make up an excuse or proceed with caution by following some guidelines pointed out throughout this post.
3. Name, drug, and money. The three things we were REQUIRED to do, during a controlled buy, was address the person by name, ask or make a comment about the drugs being bought, and tell them the amount of money being given to the plug. You are wired with two small box devices generally hidden in pockets, which officers are listening in on. It would go something like this "Hey Jake, so what's the name of the strain of weed again? .... Alright, well here's the $100."
4. Handlers don't like it when you hang out with the people you buy drugs from, and generally want to be notified first, but they still don't like it. Try hanging out with your clients once in a while, especially if they just got out of jail for drug charges, before selling to them again. Offer them a few hits and see if they'll take it. Handlers make it known that you are no longer to be doing drugs, although many still will. They are, however, permitted to "simulate" smoke, which is like taking a hit but not inhaling and blowing out immediately. Might be something to keep up on.
5. When I inquired about the DEA's methods to my handler, he said that they like to buy "everything" a person has in a controlled buy, whereas most other narcs just want to have enough evidence to get a distribution charge, which could be buying a dimebag of weed. So if someone you've dealt with previously wants to suddenly buy all your merchandise or a much larger amount than they ever have, this could be a sign of a CI.
6. Cameras. When going inside a house for a controlled buy, I had to have a camera attached to my keyring that was in my hand at all times in order to give officers visuals on what's going on inside the building. If someone is holding their keys and pointing a fob at you or waving it around even slightly, call off the deal, especially if this is against their normal routine not to have keys in their hands. Remember, if you don't follow through with the deal, you can't be charged with anything.
7. Day vs. night. No agency wants to do a buy at night because there are no clear visuals for other officers at night. If your people are buying during the night, stay comforted by the fact they're definitely not CI's.
8. Sorry, but Snapchat isn't going to keep you entirely safe. All CIs are given burner phones to take picture evidence of messages being sent through Snapchat. The only upside to using Snapchat is if you accidentally leave the chat for a second and come back to get evidence with your burner, it may very well be gone as the messages delete themselves. This happened to me more than a couple times because I did not ever use Snapchat and it was confusing for me.
9. Look for changed behavior in your clients. That's the big thing. Have their buying habits changed? Could be a reason.
10. One of the biggest things I can recommend, do NOT use real names, and NEVER use text or Facebook, and NEVER meet at your place of residence. Pseudonyms are always the best. It's hard to charge someone if you don't know who they are. Cops use text to figure that out even if you do have a nickname. A combination of never revealing your name, using Snapchat (with a username not linking to who you are in real life), and meeting in THEIR car (not yours because yours has plates that can be traced back to you) and waiting about ten minutes to go back to your vehicle, will make a huge difference. Meet in an area with a lot of parked cars, a mall perhaps, and go fuck around in the mall for a bit before leaving. NEVER let them dictate where you meet. Narcs do not do busts on scene. They wait several months before getting the arrest warrants required in order to let suspicion fall off their CI. Run your enterprise like this, and I can almost guarantee they'll have nothing to go on to get a warrant because they still have no idea who you are. In fact, a handler most likely won't even want to pursue a target a CI doesn't have a real name, address, or phone number for.
TL;DR, keep your eyes on who gets arrested through some sort of source, don't use a name, phone number, or meet near your car or at home, make some attempts to hang out with people you may be suspicious of before selling, watch out heavily for the name, drug, money technique, and call off a deal if things are seeming to add up. It's better to be careful than to be in prison. Again, mods, if this goes against some rule, just send me a PM and let me know so I know what's going on. I apologize if it does break some rule. Thanks again. If you have any questions, let me know. I'm sure there's more little things I could go over but can't think of at the moment. Have a good one guys, and stay safe.
Firstly, I want to say that I stand on a more pro-drug stance. I initially became a CI as part of getting out of prison. While I am mostly pro-drug, I do believe in self-preservation above all. I believe possession of all drugs should be decriminalized, and the producers of the hard, more dangerous stuff, be held legally accountable. I actually encourage some drug use with marijuana and hallucinogens with proper education and responsibility. When I was a CI (confidential informant), I felt conflicted with my beliefs and eventually quit because all the targets that popped up generally sold marijuana or concentrates and I believe this shouldn't even be a fine. The money was no longer worth it as it was weighing on my conscious.
That being said, I was a CI for Nebraska State Patrol (NSP), and I've been told that each state handles their CI work differently, but most of the warnings to be made here will transfer over from state to state and apply to anyone that this information has any real world significance to. I'll try to make this as easy to understand as possible and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'm here to help. One thing to note, is in order to provide a solid case, CI's are required to make two buys on a target. Now, this may change in other states, but if we didn't get two buys, it didn't go to the county attorney. They want an airtight case before even approaching a county attorney with evidence. This is directed to plugs who want to be extra careful. I know most of this is tedious and requires a lot of observation, but if you're serious about not getting caught, one should follow these notes.
1. Something to watch out for is people who want to get something from you or someone you know on a different day. If he says "Yeah, I'll come get it Monday" and it's a Saturday, that COULD mean he's giving his handler time to get other officers available for a controlled buy to do surveillance. This only takes one day to do. Narcs don't like doing a same day buy and in my whole time, we never did.
2. Watch out for clients who went to jail previously. When I was arrested for concentrates, a narc approached me in jail and said he wanted me to be his CI. I didn't do this because at the time, the county attorney had a hard on for me, and wouldn't approve me to be released to do a controlled buy. They approach you saying if you help, charges will be dropped. It's a huge incentive especially if you're looking at felony charges. You need not be concerned if they went to jail for something non-drug possession related, as narcs wouldn't be approaching them in the first place. Still, if they're serious charges, you may want to be weary of dealing with that person for a while. Make up an excuse or proceed with caution by following some guidelines pointed out throughout this post.
3. Name, drug, and money. The three things we were REQUIRED to do, during a controlled buy, was address the person by name, ask or make a comment about the drugs being bought, and tell them the amount of money being given to the plug. You are wired with two small box devices generally hidden in pockets, which officers are listening in on. It would go something like this "Hey Jake, so what's the name of the strain of weed again? .... Alright, well here's the $100."
4. Handlers don't like it when you hang out with the people you buy drugs from, and generally want to be notified first, but they still don't like it. Try hanging out with your clients once in a while, especially if they just got out of jail for drug charges, before selling to them again. Offer them a few hits and see if they'll take it. Handlers make it known that you are no longer to be doing drugs, although many still will. They are, however, permitted to "simulate" smoke, which is like taking a hit but not inhaling and blowing out immediately. Might be something to keep up on.
5. When I inquired about the DEA's methods to my handler, he said that they like to buy "everything" a person has in a controlled buy, whereas most other narcs just want to have enough evidence to get a distribution charge, which could be buying a dimebag of weed. So if someone you've dealt with previously wants to suddenly buy all your merchandise or a much larger amount than they ever have, this could be a sign of a CI.
6. Cameras. When going inside a house for a controlled buy, I had to have a camera attached to my keyring that was in my hand at all times in order to give officers visuals on what's going on inside the building. If someone is holding their keys and pointing a fob at you or waving it around even slightly, call off the deal, especially if this is against their normal routine not to have keys in their hands. Remember, if you don't follow through with the deal, you can't be charged with anything.
7. Day vs. night. No agency wants to do a buy at night because there are no clear visuals for other officers at night. If your people are buying during the night, stay comforted by the fact they're definitely not CI's.
8. Sorry, but Snapchat isn't going to keep you entirely safe. All CIs are given burner phones to take picture evidence of messages being sent through Snapchat. The only upside to using Snapchat is if you accidentally leave the chat for a second and come back to get evidence with your burner, it may very well be gone as the messages delete themselves. This happened to me more than a couple times because I did not ever use Snapchat and it was confusing for me.
9. Look for changed behavior in your clients. That's the big thing. Have their buying habits changed? Could be a reason.
10. One of the biggest things I can recommend, do NOT use real names, and NEVER use text or Facebook, and NEVER meet at your place of residence. Pseudonyms are always the best. It's hard to charge someone if you don't know who they are. Cops use text to figure that out even if you do have a nickname. A combination of never revealing your name, using Snapchat (with a username not linking to who you are in real life), and meeting in THEIR car (not yours because yours has plates that can be traced back to you) and waiting about ten minutes to go back to your vehicle, will make a huge difference. Meet in an area with a lot of parked cars, a mall perhaps, and go fuck around in the mall for a bit before leaving. NEVER let them dictate where you meet. Narcs do not do busts on scene. They wait several months before getting the arrest warrants required in order to let suspicion fall off their CI. Run your enterprise like this, and I can almost guarantee they'll have nothing to go on to get a warrant because they still have no idea who you are. In fact, a handler most likely won't even want to pursue a target a CI doesn't have a real name, address, or phone number for.
TL;DR, keep your eyes on who gets arrested through some sort of source, don't use a name, phone number, or meet near your car or at home, make some attempts to hang out with people you may be suspicious of before selling, watch out heavily for the name, drug, money technique, and call off a deal if things are seeming to add up. It's better to be careful than to be in prison. Again, mods, if this goes against some rule, just send me a PM and let me know so I know what's going on. I apologize if it does break some rule. Thanks again. If you have any questions, let me know. I'm sure there's more little things I could go over but can't think of at the moment. Have a good one guys, and stay safe.
