A home invasion sting works like
this: When agents get the name of someone that they think is robbing drug
dealers, they send an undercover agent to make contact with the robber. The
undercover agent poses as a drug runner, or a security guard, for a big time
drug trafficking organization. He presents a scheme to the robber to steal a
big drug shipment. The undercover always says that there are more than five
kilos involved because that is the amount that triggers mandatory sentences of
more than ten years.
When the robber shows up to
commit the robbery, he is arrested and charged with various federal crimes
including conspiracy to sell the nonexistent cocaine.
These types of stings reflect a
shift on law enforcements’ part from solving crimes to arresting those that
they think may be criminals. In other words, they are creating crime to prevent
crime and since 2003, the ATF use of these home invasion themes has quadrupled.
Besides the obvious issue of
entrapment, home invasion themes are problematic on several different levels.
For one, the stings give the ATF agents the ability to manipulate sentences
however they see fit. If the undercover tells the suspected robber that there
is twenty kilos in the drug house, then that’s the amount that they will charged
with conspiring to sell.
What’s even more troubling is
that in certain instances, the ATF even provided the suspects with the guns to
commit the robbery, but the courts still do not consider this entrapment.
According to the government,
these things don’t pressure in an innocent person to commit a crime, rather it
just gives a person who is predisposed to crime the opportunity to commit one.
It begs the question: What is the criteria that the government uses to
determine if a person is predisposed to crime?
In one case, ATF informant David
Villamonte testified that he targeted a man for a home invasion sting after
parking next to the man at a gas station and having a conversation with him
about prison tattoos. “By his demeanor, I could tell he was young and that he
was involved in the elements,” Villamonte said.
Home invasion stings are just
another way for the government to lock up those who it feels is the most
expendable members of society: young Black males.
Since day one, Black men from the
inner city have been the fuel that keeps the prison industrial complex running.
Twenty years ago, the disparity in sentencing laws for crack and powder cocaine
was used to fill up America’s prisons with young Black men, most of whom were
non-violent low level drug dealers and drug addicts.
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