12 men and women have been cleared of accusations that they were members of the Latin Kings gang according the The St Petersburg Times. Police raided a meeting of the gang in 2006, arresting 52 people on racketeering charges. However, it transpires that an informant, Luis Agosto, working for the FBI and Tampa police, had reinvigorated the gang and threatened people with violence if they didn’t attend meetings. Police also allegedly overlooked numerous instances of criminal behaviour by Agosto.

This is yet another in a series of incidents illustrating inadequate risk assessment and checking of informants’ reliability. In this case it appears that the entire police sting was founded on the informant’s efforts, leading to the possibility of serious consequences for the law enforcement agencies involved.

The Hawk in Law enforcement, US Law enforcement

Tags: confidential informant, corruption, entrapment, law enforcement, US

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