After setting up a completely fake drug deal and spending thousands of dollars on strippers and plane tickets to trip up a border patrol agent, the Obama administration has suddenly dropped all charges.
Customs and Border Protection agent Lauro Tobias was arrested in March 2013 on money-laundering and corruption charges, after he worked as security on the entirely fake drug deal, BuzzFeed reports.
Tobias, who served in the Air Force for twenty years, maintains he was not aware of the drug deal, and was assured everything was legal. He was paid $4,000 for his role as security.
After his attorney, Steven West, accused the federal agents involved of entrapping him, the Obama administration dropped the charges. A federal judge dismissed the case Tuesday after the Department of Justice and Tobias’ attorney both filed motions to dismiss July 25.
Everyone involved in the drug deal, except Tobias, was a federal agent, according to court documents cited by BuzzFeed. The investigation was reportedly conducted by members of an ongoing task force working on the Arizona-Mexico border to uncover corruption in the Border Patrol.
His attorney alleged that thousands of federal dollars were spent to supply the agents, the drugs, the plane tickets, the boxing match tickets, and the strippers involved. One hundred thousand dollars worth of cocaine was “exchanged” in the deal.
West told BuzzFeed he suspected the Justice Department was nervous about details of the case being made public. Even basic details about the investigation were not given to the defense in pre-trial hearings. In a court motion cited by BuzzFeed, West claimed officials refused to give an account of how much federal money was spent “on hotel rooms, air fare, frequenting adult entertainment establishments, rental car costs, restaurant bills, and any other ‘perks’ that were used to implement the operation, such as the Pacquiao fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.”
The Justice Department declined a request for comment from BuzzFeed.