Matt sent me this intensely terrifying recap of a story from the Observer, about how the Department of Homeland Security paid a known mass murderer as an informant. He apparently participated in several murders while wearing a wire for the DHS. As in, dude’s murdering other dudes while law enforcement is listening in. You should really read the whole thing if you want to know how truly insane our drug policies and law enforcement structure are. Here’s a snippet:

On January 14, 2004, Lalo kidnapped Luis Padilla in El Paso, Texas, drove him across the Mexican border, and then murdered him along with two other Mexcians, all while wearing an ICE wire. It was later revealed that Padilla — who had lived in the U.S. (legally) since childhood and at the time with living (legally) in Texas with his wife and three children — had nothing to do with any cartels and was abducted by Lalo as a matter of mistaken identity.

At around the same time, members of Lalo’s cartel– the cartel which ICE knowingly allowed to go on murdering — went to the home of an undercover DEA agent in order to kill him (they obtained his identity and home address by torturing an informant). The DEA agent barely escaped with his wife and daughters, though sheer luck.