DEA To TSA, ATF, GSA ... : Hey, We'd Like Some Attention Too!

Not content to let the rest of their acronymically-labeled colleagues grab the spotlight for boneheaded actions, the Drug Enforcement Administration got into the act in grand style:

The phone rang before sunrise. It woke Craig Patty, owner of a tiny North Texas trucking company, to vexing news about Truck 793 - a big red semi supposedly getting repairs in Houston.

"Your driver was shot in your truck," said the caller, a business colleague. "Your truck was loaded with marijuana. He was shot eight times while sitting in the cab. Do you know anything about your driver hauling marijuana?"

"What did you say?" Patty recalled asking. "Could you please repeat that?"

The truck, it turned out, had been everywhere but in the repair shop.

Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty's knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers.

Read the whole thing.

The driver was killed, and the truck suffered massive damage. This has pushed the small businessman who owns it to the edge of bankruptcy as Leviathan in DC stonewalls him.

The problem clearly is that Mr. Patty thinks he built that business, but he didn't. His truck moves on roads paid for by The Government, and by God when they need to use it in the War On Drugs™, who is he to think they should get permission or take responsibility for damage they caused?

And that dead driver? Well, as we all know from Fast & Furious, if you want to make an omelette, you have to break some eggs.

(h/t Purple Avenger)

posted by Andy at 08:09 PM

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