Watchdog slams DEA for failing to report waterboarding and torture by Latin American partners

MIAMI (AP) — A federal government watchdog is slamming the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for failing to timely report human rights abuses committed by Latin American law enforcement partners who have admitted to waterboarding, suffocating crime suspects and tortured.

The management advisory memorandum released Tuesday by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General addresses the DEA’s obligations under the so-called Leahy Act, which prohibits the U.S. from providing foreign assistance to security forces that violate human rights.

Foreign police officers and units working closely with the DEA on the front lines of the war on drugs must be vetted to comply with the law, one of the U.S.’s most important tools to promote respect for human rights among security forces.

The Inspector General, as part of an ongoing audit of the DEA’s use of polygraph examinations as part of its vetting process, found five instances in which the DEA failed to notify the State Department of potential violations that had surfaced last year.

In one case, three officers from an unidentified Central American country admitted to waterboarding and placing plastic bags over the heads of suspects to obtain information, the watchdog said. Another, also from Central America, who had previously been cleared to receive training from another U.S. federal agency, acknowledged using a Taser until the suspects fainted or vomited. Finally, an officer from a DEA-run unit in a South American country admitted to beating a detained suspect while he was handcuffed to a chair.

In all five cases, the DEA waited until the inspector general raised concerns – in one case for nearly nine months – before reporting its findings to the State Department.

The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But as part of the audit, it told the inspector general that at the time of the incidents it did not have policies, procedures and training in place to ensure that potential violators are brought to the attention of the State Department. It has since updated its policies to train officers on the Leahy Law guidelines and ensure violators are identified in a timely manner.

Last week, the inspector general released a 49-page report detailing how the DEA has hired nearly 300 special agents and investigative analysts in recent years who failed a required polygraph exam during the onboarding process or provided disqualifying information during the exam.

Although polygraph exams are not typically admissible in legal proceedings, they are often used by federal law enforcement agencies and for national security clearances.

The DEA had long been a pet peeve among federal law enforcement agencies by not requiring applicants to take a polygraph test before being hired. But in 2019, after a series of overseas scandals, including revelations that a former top cop in Colombia who conspired with cartels was hired despite showing signs of cheating on a polygraph, the country tightened its procedures.