How Does A Person Become An Informer?
How does somebody become an informer? Here’s the scenario as it plays out in many federal narcotics cases: Danny Doe gets popped dead to rights on conspiracy drug charges. Not steroid charges, mind you, but serious cocaine or heroin charges. He gets busted because somebody got popped and ratted him out. Danny’s pretty big-time and has a record, so he’s looking at doing a nasty stretch of time under the federal sentencing guidelines (USSG) if he pleads guilty or blows trial. The agents tell him that he can help himself if he “cooperates” with them – before talking to a lawyer. It’s standard for the feds to squeeze the many “small fish” they arrest into giving up their sources, leading to the arrests of bigger fish who, in turn, are squeezed to give up their sources. Far too many people immediately begin spilling their guts to the arresting agents before a lawyer is even involved. Bad idea. The agents have virtually no authority to cut deals. Period. What they say isn’t binding on the pr
