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DEA Officer Who 3D-Printed Cocaine Gets 17 Years in Prison
gizmodo ^ | 01/31/2025 | Matthew Gault

Posted on 02/01/2025 9:15:24 AM PST by BenLurkin

The schemes weren’t sophisticated. Hicox worked with other law enforcement officers to set up drug busts and conduct traffic stops of known drug dealers. They’d do the bust and skim money and drugs off the top or steal them from evidence and then give them to street-level dealers to sell for them. In one instance, they stole more than 1,000 pounds of weed from an evidence locker, claimed to have burned it, and sold it.

In one of the more bizarre schemes, Hickox stole a kilogram of cocaine from an evidence locker and replaced it with a brick he’d made in a 3D printer. He sprinkled the fake brick with real cocaine in an attempt to make it look real. This is the drug-stealing equivalent of a teenager bulking up their bed with stuffed animals in the hope their parents don’t notice they’ve snuck out.

When the police figured out what was going on and raided Hickox’s house, it was stocked with four weapons pulled from evidence lockers and marked for destruction as well as an illegally modified machine gun. Then they came upon his garage, which was marked by the sign “Gator’s Man Cave.”

(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: drugdealers; drugs; floridaman; hicks

1 posted on 02/01/2025 9:15:24 AM PST by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

I’m curious about the “they/them” pronouns


2 posted on 02/01/2025 9:17:29 AM PST by SauronOfMordor (Either you will rule. Or you will be ruled. There is no other choice.)
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To: BenLurkin

There’s the War on Drugs in a nutshell.


3 posted on 02/01/2025 9:20:03 AM PST by Ken H (Trump 2024)
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To: BenLurkin

With police like this who needs criminals?


4 posted on 02/01/2025 9:22:44 AM PST by xp38
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To: BenLurkin

Gee wiz, I would never have thought of doing any of those things if not for maybe 500 movies and TV shows.


5 posted on 02/01/2025 9:23:31 AM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: SauronOfMordor

“Hicox worked with other law enforcement officers”

thus the they. Not at all confusing.


6 posted on 02/01/2025 9:25:55 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: BenLurkin

Lots of people who do drug law enforcement end up giving in to the temptation for easy money.


7 posted on 02/01/2025 9:26:05 AM PST by marktwain
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To: BenLurkin

This sort of thing was evident when I used to live in El Paso.


8 posted on 02/01/2025 9:33:40 AM PST by Bobalu (I can’t even feign surprise anymore...)
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To: monkeyshine

A classic MI episode had the synthetic cocaine machine as part of the plot.


9 posted on 02/01/2025 9:38:30 AM PST by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure..)
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To: Ken H

Going all the way back to the days of Frank Serpico, an assignment to narcotics, whether state, local or federal, is one of the most tempting of jobs and will test every officer. Many fail, like these guys.


10 posted on 02/01/2025 9:41:20 AM PST by DPMD
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To: BenLurkin

One county over from me, I remember when it broke......my first thought was damn dude...really?

He is undoubtedly going bump into people he put in prison.......that fear alone would have heat me from doing what he did.

Once again, the Bible is as relevant as always.

1 Timothy 6:10 NLT

[10] “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”


11 posted on 02/01/2025 9:42:47 AM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!ly)
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To: BenLurkin
Hickox stole a kilogram of cocaine from an evidence locker and replaced it with a brick he’d made in a 3D printer


12 posted on 02/01/2025 9:42:54 AM PST by HonkyTonkMan ( )
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To: BenLurkin

Words extinct from government lexicon: trust and “full faith and credit”.


13 posted on 02/01/2025 9:46:29 AM PST by txeagle
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To: SauronOfMordor

“I’m curious about the “they/them” pronouns”

Hopefully Trump signs an EO banning that crap.


14 posted on 02/01/2025 9:50:11 AM PST by BobL
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To: wally_bert

lol, I’m not sure how or why a 3D printer is required to swap out baggies. Wouldn’t it look and feel like plastic? Use powdered milk or baking soda or whatever those dealers use to dilute it for profit. It says that the fake stuff was sprinkled with the real stuff. Like in the film American Gangsters. “Just enough for the reagent test”. Or season one of HBO’s true detective. Or Brooklyn’s Finest. Off the top of my head.


15 posted on 02/01/2025 10:13:15 AM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: BenLurkin

I expect headlines to be somewhat exaggerated, but I really hate it when a headline says something that the body of the article doesn’t say.

No cocaine was “3-d printed”. A brick was 3-d printed and covered with cocaine.


16 posted on 02/01/2025 10:48:38 AM PST by I want the USA back (America is once again GREAT!)
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To: monkeyshine

Maybe he had a LOT of time on his hands to wait on the printer...


17 posted on 02/01/2025 12:35:41 PM PST by larrytown (A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)
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To: BenLurkin

So he was Thick As A Brick?..................


18 posted on 02/02/2025 12:02:55 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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