HOUSTON – The owner of a North Texas trucking company is demanding compensation from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,saying the federal agency used his driver and truck to bust drug traffickers, ultimately leading to his employee’s death in a botched operation.
The Houston Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/QVcExj) it confirmed through prosecutors’ court comments and unnamed sources the DEA had been paying Lawrence Chapa as an undercover agent. The DEA has not confirmed that because it does not comment on informants.
The truck’s owner Craig Patty says he didn’t know Chapa was a DEA informant until he got a call saying his driver had been shot eight times in the vehicle’s cab. He is demanding the DEA pay him more than $130,000 for truck repairs and $1.3 million in damages.