The Journal Sentinel reviewed thousands of pages of court records, police reports and other documents and interviewed dozens of people involved in six ATF operations nationwide that were publicly praised by the ATF in recent years for nabbing violent criminals and making cities safer.Īgents with the U.S. The teens found out as they were arrested and booked into jail.Įarlier this year when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel exposed a botched ATF sting in Milwaukee - that included agents hiring a brain-damaged man to promote an undercover storefront and then arresting him for his work - ATF officials told Congress the failed Milwaukee operation was an isolated case of inadequate supervision. government advertisements for a fake storefront. The tattoos had been sponsored by the U.S. The guys running Squid's were actually undercover ATF agents conducting a sting to get guns away from criminals and drugs off the street. It would be months before the young men learned the whole thing was a setup. So they took the money and got the ink etched on their necks, tentacles creeping down to their collarbones. The 19-year-olds spent many afternoons there playing Xbox and chatting with the owner, "Squid," and the store clerks. He and his friend, Marquis Glover, liked Squid's. Key, who is mentally disabled, was swayed. They would even pay him and a friend $150 apiece if they agreed to turn their bodies into walking billboards. Especially one of a giant squid smoking a joint.īut the guys running Squid's Smoke Shop in Portland, Ore., convinced him: It would be a perfect way to promote their store. Aaron Key wasn't sure he wanted a tattoo on his neck.
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