Unbelievable.
Via WaPo:
The drug war means never having to say you’re sorry.
A Houston-based federal judge ruled that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration does not owe the owner of a small Texas trucking company anything, not even the cost of repairing the bullet holes to a tractor-trailer truck that the agency used without his permission for a wild 2011 drug cartel sting that resulted in the execution-style murder of the truck’s driver, who was secretly working as a government informant.
The Houston Chronicle story also points out that the ruling will spare the DEA a “potentially embarrassing trial.” Another way to phrase that might be that the ruling prevents the public from knowing the details of just how ruthless and indifferent to collateral damage drug warriors can sometimes be. In fact, the owner of the trucking company, Craig Patty, said that this was his reason for bringing the lawsuit — to shed light on what happened. This ruling will prevent that.
Not that the action didn’t hurt his business. Patty had only two trucks at the time, and the truck the DEA decided to drive to the border and load up with drugs was out of commission for two months…