Did you know mice like to partake of the green stuff.
Well, at least that’s what a group of police officers tried to claim.
In 2018, the upper management of a police department near Buenos Aires, Argentina performed
an inspection of impounded drugs.
Curiously out of the approximately 6.6 tons [13,228 lb or 6,000 kg] of confiscated cannabis
that had been stored in a police warehouse for the past 2 years, only 6 tons [12,037
lbs or 5,460 kg] could be accounted for.
When questioned by a judge, a police commissioner claimed that mice ate over half a ton [1,190
lbs or 540 kg] of marijuana.
Forensic experts from Buenos Aires University debunked the commissioner's explanation, saying
that with their excellent sense of smell, mice wouldn't mistake the drug for food.
Also, if they had eaten large quantities of cannabis, a lot of mouse corpses would have
been found in the warehouse.
Eight policemen ended up fired and the commissioner was investigated by the court to determine
if the missing drugs were the result of “expedience or negligence”.
That might be a funny incident, but how common is it for confiscated drugs to go missing?
What actually happens to drugs seized by police?
Generally the procedure is determined by where the bust happened; each country and in many
cases each jurisdiction or law enforcement agency within countries have their own set
of rules, regulations, and process for confiscating drugs.
In general in the US during a raid, arrest or any situation where the police seize narcotics,
they immediately start a chain of custody for the items.
Law enforcement must manage contraband while it’s in their possession.
They have to able to show in court that the drugs have not been swapped, altered, or tampered
with prior to testing.
After the narcotics are seized, the confiscating officers take them to the police station’s
property room.
The officers then package the drugs in clear plastic bags along with case information such
as the seizing officer name, ID numbers, date, time and case number.
Any information is usually written in permanent ink.
Then the plastic bags are heat sealed and tamper-evidence tape is put over the seal.
The officers initial and date the tape so if someone was able to get the tape off without
tearing it, it wouldn't be possible for them to put it back on in a way that lines up with
the other writing on the tape.
Once sealed, drug packages are submitted to the Evidence Management Unit who forwards
them to a crime lab or forensics unit--either in-house or off-site.
The lab tests the drugs to positively identify exactly what the substance is.
The drug ID provided by testing is crucial in helping law enforcement to file charges
and make cases.
Minus the small amount used for testing, the crime lab or forensics will return the drugs
to the Evidence Management Unit for storage pending case disposition.
If the case goes to trial, the prosecutor may request that the arresting officer bring
the drugs to court.
In this situation, Evidence Management would check the drugs out of the property storage
room to the officer.
They would then take them to court, and return them to the property room after the hearing
or portion of trial that they were needed for.
Once the case completes, the time for an appeal passes and the evidence is no longer needed,
the drugs are reclassified in the system as slated for destruction.
Most jurisdictions hold drugs for the duration of the trial, on average for a non serious
offense the drugs might end up being held less than 3 years.
For a large bust and long trial with many defendants, seized narcotics could be held
7-8 years.
Sometimes police use the drugs slated for destruction for undercover operations and
training--both K9 and field test training for employees who may not come into contact
with drugs often, but should be familiar with narcotics such as probation/parole officers
and confidential informants.
Most jurisdictions conduct biannual evidence destructions or when the amount of contraband
slated for destruction reaches a predetermined threshold, eradication is carried out.
A common exception to storing all the seized narcotics of a case, is live marijuana plant
seizures, especially from commercial outdoor gardens.
Law enforcement will collect representative samples for court.
Then they’ll use a backhoe or other gardening equipment to dig a deep hole and mass bury
the other cannabis plants.
Deprived of oxygen the plants will quickly rot and die.
For destruction, law enforcement agencies may have agreements with local funeral homes,
factories or hospitals to incinerate the contraband.
Generally incinerators burn hot enough to quickly and rapidly destroy the drugs while
not producing smoke.
Other jurisdictions use third party contractors licensed to handle hazardous materials to
destroy the drugs on their behalf.
Then there are some law enforcement agencies that burn drugs themselves.
Sometimes they get in over their own heads such as in 2015 when a police force in Tangerang,
a town 15 miles outside of Jakarta, Indonesia decided to destroy 3 tons of cannabis in a
bonfire.
Realizing that the fire would give off fumes, local officials wore gas masks, however they
forgot about the town.
Smoke from the fire spread and a significant portion of the town’s residents got high
or experienced dizziness and headaches.
As our opening story highlighted, there are law enforcement officers out there with sticky
fingers.
Sadly this is not an uncommon issue, while researching this video we found multiple instances
of cops in the US, UK and other countries being caught stealing from property storage.
In some cases, cops even skipped the evidence storage part and simply ’misplace’ drugs
during a raid or arrest.
That’s what a pair of Canadian cops did--misplaced marijuana-laced chocolate bars straight into
their mouths.
On January 27, 2018 Toronto constables Jamie Young and Vittorio Dominelli were part of
a raid on a pot dispensary.
Vittorio stole three hazelnut chocolate bars infused with cannabis oil.
Later on that night, the 2 cops were on surveillance duty.
After a discussion about having never tried marijuana, they decided to sample the chocolate.
They ate eight squares of one bar.
20 minutes later, the effects of the chocolate hit Vittorio ‘like a ton of bricks’.
He started sweating heavily and thought he was going to pass out.
He worried that he was going to die.
About 2 hours later Vittorio called for assistance over police radio, using the 10-33 police
code, which indicates an officer is in serious trouble.
He claimed that he was about to pass out from running down the street.
Responding officers said that the pair "appeared to be in distress" when they were found.
They were both taken to hospital.
One of the responding officers slipped on ice during the call and also had to be transported
to hospital.
Vittorio and Jamie faced misconduct charges under the Police Services Act.
Vittorio resigned from the force.
A Judge called him a "complete idiot" for tampering with evidence.
Due to Vittorio’s theft, 7 of the suspects charged in the pot-shop raid had their charges
dropped.
Sometimes the cops aren’t stealing to satisfy curiosity or support a personal habit; they're
running an illegal black market.
In 2014 based on a tip, police in the UK conducted a raid on police inspector Keith Boots’s
home.
They found cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and cannabis with an estimated street
value of £700,000 [approx $874,835].
They even found 24 pounds [11 kg] cocaine hidden in his washing machine.
Prior to his arrest, Boot was responsible for evidence storage at a West Yorkshire Police
station.
Part of his job was to manage seized narcotics and make sure they were checked and signed
off for disposal.
However, instead he and his son Ashley ran a drug recycling ring and sold drugs to a
network of drug dealers.
Keith was pretty sly--on the surface he was extremely diligent.
He sent emails to colleagues expressing his concerns about missing or unlabelled drug
packs, and also made it his responsibility to have a CCTV camera installed in the storeroom.
Ultimately Keith was found guilty of a number of charges, including theft and intent to
supply.
Ashley was found guilty of five drug conspiracy charges.
While we’ve discussed some of the more lighthearted examples of corrupt police stealing confiscated
drugs, it’s a serious issue.
When law enforcement and the justice system can’t be trusted, it erodes public trust.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find detailed statistics surrounding police theft, sometimes
it’s classified as misconduct, especially when a case against the officer isn’t pursued.
When the theft is for personal use, especially if the officer is part of a smaller force,
perhaps in a small town, the response and consequences vary greatly.
Some cops are merely given a slap on the wrist, suspended or forced to resign, perhaps fired
and given suspended sentences with probation.
Notably, in the US, an all too common scenario is that after a work incident involving physical
trauma an officer is prescribed pain pills and becomes addicted.
Or they developed PTSD due to the incident.
In either case over time the officer spins out of control and starts stealing from the
property room at work.
Sadly, decorated officers of many years have brought life long careers to an abrupt ending
due to their addictions.
For larger law enforcement groups such as those servicing a city and for scenarios where
stealing confiscated drugs were just one aspect of overall poor behavior from an officer,
the end result was often jail time--often after an investigation or sting from the Feds.
Sometimes staff other than the police are derelict in their duty of the application
of law in regards to impounded drugs.
In June of 2011 discrepancies were found in the paperwork of Annie Dookhan, a chemist
at the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Boston.
This lab ids narcotics for several counties in the state of Massachusetts.
Further investigation revealed that Annie had forged the initials of an evidence officer
in her log book.
Despite being suspended from lab duties, Annie was still allowed to testify in court for
8 more months until February 2012 when Boston district attorneys were notified of the breach
in procedure.
Annie was finally placed on administrative leave and quit soon after.
A police probe uncovered that for years Annie had altered and faked test results to hide
her frequent "dry labbing," or visually identifying samples without actually testing them.
She only actually tested around a third to a fifth of the 60,000 drug samples that crossed
her desk.
Some coworkers had even brought concerns about Annie to their bosses who turned a blind eye.
It also came out that Annie didn’t have a master's degree in chemistry from the University
of Massachusetts Boston as she had claimed on her resume and in sworn testimony.
As a result of Annie’s falsifications, the lab was shut down.
Multiple charges including 17 counts of obstruction of justice and 8 counts of tampering with
evidence were brought against her.
Annie was sentenced to 3-5 years' imprisonment and 2 years' parole.
Her only known motive for her actions was to look extremely productive and further her
career.
In the end, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dropped 21,587 drug convictions that
had hinged on potentially tainted samples processed by Annie.
Several defendants filed civil suits.
Annie’s actions wreaked absolute havoc in many lives beyond court issues; some defendants
lost jobs, driver's licenses, or were deported.
Others had marriages fall apart, lost access to kids and paid a small fortune in lawyer
and court fees.
The state of Massachusetts continues to deal with fallout from the scandal.
One prominent attorney said that as many as 40,000 people could have been falsely convicted
as a result of Annie’s actions.
Now go check out Crazy True Stories From Undercover Cops:
Or watch things you should absolutely not do if you’re pulled over.
Whichever video you watch next, it will be far more fun than being arrested.
Trust us!