TPMMuckraker
DOJ Report: DEA Needs To Be More Covert About Their Undercover Airplanes

Ryan J. Reilly December 14, 2011, 12:55 PM

The Drug Enforcement Administration needs to keep their undercover aerial operations targeting narcotics trafficking along the Mexican border and in foreign countries a bit more hush-hush, according to a new report from the Justice Department’s inspector general.

As of March, DOJ investigators searching the FAA aircraft registration database were able to find records of 25 domestically-based DEA aircraft that “should have been registered covertly to fictitious or cover organizations but that were not.” As of Sept. 7, 13 DEA aircraft that should have been registered covertly still weren’t (TPM found five planes registered still registered to the DEA in a search of the FAA’s database on Wednesday).

Because law enforcement organizations have increased their use of planes, helicopters and drones, criminal subjects “are becoming increasing aware of surveillance aircraft,” according to the report.

“If spotted and identified as a DEA aircraft through its registration or tail number, the safety of Special Agents or confidential informants might be compromised,” the report states “Maintaining a covert identity is therefore critical to operational safety because aircraft registration information is readily available on the Internet.”

DOJ’s internal investigators were also concerned that keeping DEA aircraft at publicly accessible hangars posed a security threat. In fact, DEA employees at one hangar in an undisclosed area “known for a high-level of drug trafficking activity” told investigators that DEA aircraft kept in the shared hangar were vandalized and that the organizations that shared the commercial space with the agency changed frequently and they could not control access to the location.
....

That’s got to be pretty awkward for the DEA when the cartels discover one of their undercover planes just by an internet search. So just imagine how feels when you crash your plane filled with cocaine and then find out it was a former CIA plane used for extraordinary renditions. Awkward!:

Mexico drug plane used for US ‘rendition’ flights: report
AP

Thu Sep 4, 2008 4:40 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (AFP) — A private jet that crash-landed almost one year ago in eastern Mexico carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine had previously been used for CIA “rendition” flights, a newspaper report said here Thursday, citing documents from the United States and the European Parliament.

The plane was carrying Colombian drugs for the fugitive leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, when it crash-landed in the Yucatan peninsula on September 24, El Universal reported.

The daily said it had obtained documents from the United States and the European Parliament which “show that that plane flew several times to Guantanamo, Cuba, presumably to transfer terrorism suspects.“
...