This is a photo of Lawrence Chapa, who was working as a government informant when he was driving a truck that was fatally attacked in Houston. Chapa, 53, was from Houston. This shot is from 2/4/2010 when he was arrested by HPD for possession of a controlled substance. (Photo by HPD)
It’s an Obama world…
The Drug Enforcement Administration used a truck company’s driver and truck without permission to haul pot in a drug sting. The owner didn’t find out about it until his driver was shot dead in a botched operation.
Chron.com reported, via Dad29:
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.
At least 17 hours before that early morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers – all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.
In the confusion of the attack in northwest Harris County, compounded by officers in the operation not all knowing each other, a Houston policeman shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff’s deputy.
Still waiting
But eight months later, Patty still can’t get recompense from the U.S. government’s decision to use his truck and employee without his permission.
More here.
Hat Tip Meg