You know I can understand the need for the FIB to infiltrate groups but to drive the action is going way too far.
“An examination of the case by BuzzFeed News also reveals that some of those informants, acting under the direction of the FBI, played a far larger role than has previously been reported. Working in secret, they did more than just passively observe and report on the actions of the suspects. Instead, they had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception. The extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.”
Hard to believe that this article is in Buzzfeed.
Remember Whitey Buglar, the FBI informant that was working for FBI while still committing crime? The FBI just released heavily redacted records of his.
FBI releases trove of heavily redacted records on James ‘Whitey’ Bulger
BOSTON (AP) — The FBI has released hundreds of pages of records from notorious Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger’s file.
The Boston Herald reports the 300 pages of heavily redacted records show the agency was aware that Bulger was involved in loan-sharking, horse-fixing, and other crimes before recruiting him as an informant.
The FBI says the records were posted on the agency’s Vault public records database earlier this month and will be the first in a series of records released on Bulger.
Bulger led a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets in the Boston area.
He was convicted in 2013 in connection with a series of gangland slayings and other crimes while also working as an FBI informant who ratted on the New England mob, his gang’s main rival.
Bulger fled Boston in late 1994 after his FBI handler warned him he was about to be indicted and was one of America’s most wanted men before being arrested in California in 2011.
Bulger was killed in federal prison in West Virginia in 2018. Authorities have not charged anyone with his killing, but law enforcement officials said at the time that two Massachusetts mobsters were suspects.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/07/19/fbi-records-james-whitey-bulger/
In the 1970s and ‘80s, FBI agent John Connolly used gangster Whitey Bulger as an informant and credited him with helping bring down the Mafia in Boston. However, Connolly also broke the law himself to protect Bulger. Connolly’s actions were uncovered in the 1990s, and he was eventually convicted of racketeering and second-degree murder. The corrupt relationship between Connolly and Bulger is depicted in the 2015 film Black Mass.
https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/john-connolly