Posted on 08/26/2014 4:09:48 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in alleged payments by Drug Enforcement Administration personnel to an Amtrak employee are being investigated by the Justice Department inspector general's office.
The announcement by Jay Lerner, a spokesman for the IG's office, follows the disclosure by Amtrak's inspector general that DEA paid an Amtrak secretary $854,460 over nearly 20 years to obtain confidential information about train passengers that the drug-fighting agency could have lawfully obtained for free through a law enforcement network.
The Amtrak IG's report says that under a joint drug enforcement task force that includes the DEA and Amtrak's own police agency, the task force can obtain Amtrak confidential passenger reservation information at no cost.
Under an agreement, Amtrak police would receive a share of any money seized as a result of such drug task force investigations. Amtrak's inspector general concluded that the DEA's purchase of the passenger information deprived the Amtrak Police Department of money it would have received from resulting drug arrests.
Amtrak, formally called the National Railroad Passenger Corp., is not a government agency, although it has received tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidies and is subject to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
Amtrak's inspector general said the secretary provided the passenger information without seeking approval from Amtrak management or police, but Amtrak's own corporate privacy policy expressly allows it to sell or share personal information about its customers and passengers with contractors or a category of others it describes as "certain trustworthy business partners."
(Excerpt) Read more at abc-7.com ...
Hmm. I wonder how hot this secretary was, and who was approving the payouts.
What was the legitimate need for such information?
Who at the DEA was related to this secretary?
Why did it take twenty years to become known?
Will the secretary be required to refund this "unjust enrichment," in whole or in part?
Who's going to jail?
Who's getting demoted?
I'm tired of typing now--someone else pick it up from here....
Sherriff Knottingham.
alot of drugs get passed on Amtrak...CIA pays foreigners for information - called spying...sometimes, HUMINT has to be done to get to those criminals - where no other ways can...
Under an agreement, Amtrak police would receive a share of any money seized as a result of such drug task force investigations. Amtrak’s inspector general concluded that the DEA’s purchase of the passenger information deprived the Amtrak Police Department of money it would have received from resulting drug arrests.
DEA went straight to the secretary to keep fewer people from knowing what was going on, meaning the Amtrak police.
you're correct.
Unless actual drug deals were spotted on the train and tied to particular passengers, however, all this other information amounts to nothing but fishing expeditions.
Protection money for DEA/CIA heroin shipments Sarc/maybe not
Jay Lerner, Lois Lerner, what am I missing?
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