Being forced into becoming an Informant
TLDR: if you fuck up, you might be forced to become an informant and cooperate with the adverasry to avoid larger sentences. But essentially LE is offloading risks onto you, you serve as cannon fodder for them.
Introduction
Today, we'll explore how poor OPSEC can lead to becoming an informant for the police, and what the consequences of that can be. As you're probably already aware, bad OPSEC can land you in prison and impact your life in numerous ways. But before you even reach that point, there are many steps along the way, such as police interviews and trials, where you might be coerced into doing things you never intended to. Let's dive into what it means to be an informant and what that really entails.
What is an informant?
If we look at the definition of an informant available online, we get something like this: "An informant, in the context of police work, is a person who provides information about criminal activities to law enforcement, often in exchange for leniency or other benefits. These informants can be crucial in investigations, particularly in cases involving drugs or organized crime."
As you can see, informants are a useful tool for police services to reduce the amount of work needed to close a case. That's exactly why they rely so heavily on informants, and they'll go to great lengths to get them. This can mean lying, using violence, or even forcing people to cooperate in order to make their jobs easier. Police are particularly skilled at bending, or outright breaking, the law, and they won't hesitate to do so if it helps them achieve their goals.
But what does an informant mean for others facing legal issues? To them, an informant is an enemy. If you're involved in illegal activities, and you know someone is an informant, you'll have to deal with it. Informants are often labeled as "rats", people who snitch to the police, and they're generally seen as untrustworthy. And in reality, informants are snitching, which is why they can't be trusted. So, basically, informants are criminals that are hated by other criminals.
What can happen to you as an informant?
Let's walk through a quick scenario. Imagine you're running a website with two people you know in real life, a platform that allows users to sell whatever they want. After a few years, the site draws attention because some items being sold are illegal. Due to poor OPSEC, you and your two partners are identified and held responsible.
Once in custody, a police officer informs you that you're facing up to 30 years in prison. Terrifying, right? But then they offer you a deal: if you cooperate and provide detailed information about your two partners and their roles in running the site, your sentence could be reduced to 10 years or less. Sounds better? It might.
Frightened by the prospect of spending half your life behind bars, and not being someone inclined toward confrontation, you decide to cooperate. You become an informant. To do so, you explain in detail what your partners did, how they operated, and hand over any personal information you have on them.
As you can see from the rules laid out earlier, you've now become a tool, and effectively the property, of a few police officers. Congratulations, you just sold yourself. So, what happens next? You'll start by handing over every piece of information you have on your two partners, hoping it will be enough to reduce your sentence. But it won't stop there. The police will want more. They'll begin asking for details about the users of your platform as well. And since they hold all the power over what gets communicated to the judge about your cooperation, you'll be forced to comply, whether you like it or not.
As you can see, you can be an informant both inside and outside of jail. And guess what? You will be. So, you snitched to the police and go to trial. Your partners are sentenced to 30 years in prison, while you only get 10. If they're not completely naive, they'll know you collaborated, and now, they're angry with you. Since you cooperated, you're sent to a different prison for "protection", but it's clear you're being isolated, and not everyone sees it as protection.
Here, multiple scenarios can happen:
1) Once you're in prison, your former partners, now seeking revenge, offer money to a gang to find and kill you. With gangs spread throughout the prison system, it wouldn't take long for them to locate you. Within a month, the gang members in your new facility track you down. They'll force someone else to carry out the violent act of killing you. Despite being isolated in a different prison, the so-called "protection" was nothing more than an illusion. In the end, you're dead.
2) Once in prison, you're placed in solitary confinement, under the guise of "protection." Yes, it keeps you safe from any gangs that may be looking to kill you, but it also condemns you to 10 years of pure legal torture. Your body and mind become your worst enemies. If you're strong enough, you'll resist the urge to end it all, but you'll never leave the same person who walked in. The isolation will change you, whether you survive it or not.
3) Once in prison, your former partners fail to find a way to get revenge, and you can begin the survival game that will define the next 10 years of your life. But the police aren't done with you yet. Having used you as an informant, they now hold power over you, and you'll continue serving as one, even behind bars. The police will regularly ask you to snitch on other prisoners, gathering intel on criminal activities.
If you refuse? They'll threaten to move you to a less secure facility, potentially one where your former partners are housed. Even though the so-called "protection" is just an illusion, the fear of the violence around you is enough to force your cooperation. You'll comply, because in this environment, survival means giving in.
If the other prisoners catch wind that you're a snitch, your life will be in danger, and it won't take long before you're dead, whether you're part of a gang or not. In prison, being labeled an informant is a death sentence. The fear of being marked as a traitor is so strong that it overrides any alliances or protections you might think you have.
4) After 10 years as an informant behind bars, you're finally free. Nobody knew you were a snitch in prison, and whether by luck or sheer survival instincts, you made it out alive. But your freedom is short-lived. The police aren't done with you, they'll continue to use you as an informant for as long as they can. This means you'll be dragged back into the world of illegal activities, gathering information for them while staying one step ahead of those who might seek revenge.
Now, the second survival game begins. You have to avoid being caught by criminals who might have it out for you, all while hoping that your former partners haven't found a way to track you down. As for relying on police protection? They'll protect their own interests first and foremost, your safety is never a priority.
Are informants protected?
Once you become an informant, you're trapped forever. That's the price of protection. But in reality, there's no true protection, aside from the cops supposedly keeping your identity secret. You end up paying for this "protection" in ways you never expected. The truth is, many officers are corrupt, and they won't hesitate to use threats to get what they want from you. For instance, they might threaten to reveal your identity to criminals, charge you with a crime you didn't commit, or force you deeper into illegal activities they've already dragged you into.
Some officers are even running illegal businesses themselves and will use you to help eliminate their competition. You become a pawn in their game, pushed to do their dirty work while they protect their own interests. The line between law enforcement and criminal activity blurs, and you're caught in the middle, unable to escape the control they have over you.
Some rules are established to protect informants:
Physical Safety of Informants:
Law enforcement must ensure informants' safety by implementing witness protection measures.
Operational strategies should be designed to minimize exposure and assess potential threats regularly.
Safety measures must be continually adapted to evolving risks.
Psychological Impact of Informant Activities:
Informant activities often involve exposure to criminal elements and high-stress situations, leading to psychological trauma.
Law enforcement must acknowledge these risks and provide emotional support and resources to informants.
Mental Health Support:
Ongoing mental health support should be provided, including counseling services and periodic assessments.
Informants should have access to a supportive network for processing experiences.
Balancing Information and Well-Being:
There must be a balance between extracting valuable information and safeguarding informants' physical and psychological health.
Maintaining effective protection measures and prioritizing mental health is key to ensuring humane and ethical use of informants.
In reality, these rules are often ignored because cops don't really prioritize the well-being of informants. In most cases, they only focus on keeping the informant's identity anonymous, as that requires little effort. However, they don't take into account the physical and psychological threats informants face. The police will only care about your survivability if you're considered useful to them. If you're not, you're expendable. After all, if one of their tools breaks, they simply replace it, right?
There's no true anonymity when at least two cops know your identity (This is a standard internal rule). On top of that, corruption is rampant in police forces around the world, meaning that some officers may leak your identity to criminals if they stand to gain something in return. What I'm trying to emphasize is that there is no real protection when you're an informant, and the police are not your savior. In the end, you're just a tool to them, easily disposable once your usefulness has expired.
Ethical questioning
We've seen that becoming an informant rarely pays off, but there are a few ethical questions we must address to understand the bigger picture.
First, the practice of forcing cooperation to reduce jail time or avoid mistreatment has been used throughout history. I don't want to make extreme comparisons too quickly, but if you know a bit about WWII, you'll understand that this tactic was used by German troops. Essentially, they coerced people into naming neighbors who were considered enemies of the Axis powers and giving their localization to avoid being killed or seeing their families murdered. In many ways, this mirrors what police do today, forcing individuals to cooperate in exchange for leniency, threatening them with dire consequences if they don't.
When the war ended, those who had collaborated with the enemy were hunted down and judged, facing similar fates to the ones they had tried to avoid by snitching in the first place. Many who had cooperated in exchange for survival ended up paying the price for their actions, often facing public shame, trial, and even execution. This illustrates the vicious cycle that collaboration can create, what was meant as a means of avoiding one form of harm can lead to a different, often equally devastating, outcome.
Another ethical question arises: If you commit an illegal act in opposition to the powers that be and get caught, is it ethical to reduce your sentence by betraying others? I'm not sure about that. When you choose to oppose a government because you genuinely believe in your cause, you might feel compelled to continue that resistance even during arrest and trial. If you don't, it raises the question, were your actions truly driven by conviction, or were they just out of personal interest or even stupidity? At that point, cooperating with authorities might seem more like a betrayal of your own principles, rather than a pragmatic survival tactic.
Moreover, would you want to become a mere pawn for the government just because they have the "power" to force you into it? If you're reading this article, I don't think so.
Where are you the most susceptible to become an informant?
As we saw before, informants are widely used around the globe. However, some countries rely more heavily on this system than others. Here are the top countries where this practice is most prevalent:
United States
The U.S. has a long history of using informants in a variety of areas, particularly in drug law enforcement, organized crime, and terrorism investigations. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies often rely on confidential informants (CIs) in their operations.
As you know, the definition of terrorism is constantly evolving in modern society, and some governments may view parallel economies as a form of terrorism. This is the case in the USA.
Mexico
Given Mexico's challenges with organized crime and drug cartels, law enforcement heavily relies on informants to fight against cartels and drug trafficking networks. However, the use of informants has been criticized for corruption and the lack of protection.
Here we are: informants are often not adequately protected by police services, leaving them vulnerable to violent retribution, particularly from criminal organizations like cartels.
Italy
In Italy, particularly in relation to the Mafia (Cosa Nostra), informants play a critical role in dismantling criminal organizations. The use of pentiti (turncoat informants) has been instrumental in numerous convictions.
Just like cartels, the mafia is highly effective at eliminating identified informants, using intimidation, violence, or even murder to silence those who cooperate with law enforcement.
Russia
Informants are used in Russia to monitor and suppress political dissent, organize criminal investigations, and even in counter-terrorism efforts. Russian authorities have also been criticized for using informants to monitor opposition movements.
In some countries like Russia, where political opponents are openly targeted and killed, it's not hard to imagine the fate of informants. The fear of being silenced, often through violence or murder, keeps many in line, making it easy for authorities to identify and control those who might consider cooperating. The atmosphere of fear creates a chilling effect, where survival often trumps any moral or legal considerations.
China
China uses a network of informants for surveillance purposes, both for law enforcement and for monitoring political dissent. The use of informants is pervasive, with millions of individuals reportedly involved in government surveillance programs.
That's really close to what is happening in Russia.
Consequences
The use of informants has consequences that cannot be ignored. First, in some countries, it is being used as a tool to locate and silence political opponents. This is not unlike the behavior seen in wartime dictatorships, even if it's happening under the guise of law enforcement.
The second issue is that some informants, driven by fear or the promise of money, are willing to fabricate information in exchange for rewards. This leads to situations where innocent people are wrongfully imprisoned or even killed, simply because someone else decided to make them the "perfect" target. This abuse of the system creates an environment where truth is often sacrificed for convenience or personal gain.
There have been multiple scandals related to the use of informants over the years. Here is an article that summarizes them.
Real life examples
To help you understand the potential consequences of being an informant, I'd like to share the following stories:
The Murder of "The Iceman" (Richard Kuklinski's Informants)
Richard Kuklinski, a notorious hitman for the Gambino crime family, was involved in several murders, including those of people who were informants or suspected of being so. Kuklinski's involvement in eliminating informants is well documented.
One of his targets was a man he later admitted to killing because he was believed to have been providing information to the authorities. In some cases, Kuklinski was hired to kill people who were seen as threats to the Mafia's secrecy, including people suspected of being informants.
Kuklinski's murders highlight the brutal consequences for informants in organized crime families, where betrayal is met with swift and violent punishment.
The Murder of "Donnie Brasco" (Joseph D. Pistone's Informants)
Joseph Pistone, an FBI agent who infiltrated the Mafia using the alias "Donnie Brasco," worked closely with informants to gather intelligence on mob activities. One of his informants, a man named "Sally," was killed by the Mafia after Pistone's infiltration was suspected.
The real danger for informants was that they were often caught in a crossfire when law enforcement operations led to tensions within criminal groups. Many of the informants involved in these operations faced severe retaliation, often with deadly consequences.
The story of Pistone's infiltration shows how informants are often betrayed, killed, or silenced when they are no longer deemed useful by their handlers, or when they are discovered by the criminals they are infiltrating.
The Case of "Gary Webb" (Journalist and Informant)
Gary Webb was a journalist who exposed CIA involvement in drug trafficking in his investigative series "Dark Alliance." While Webb wasn't directly an informant, his story intersects with the ethics of whistleblowers and informants.
Webb faced harassment and threats from various factions after his stories were published. He later died under mysterious circumstances, which many speculated could have been linked to his exposure of government corruption. While not a direct case of an informant being killed, Webb's situation shows how those who provide critical information face extreme risks, even from powerful institutions.
Webb's tragic end illustrates the broader risks informants face, not just from criminal groups, but also from larger, systemic powers that may want to suppress uncomfortable truths.
The Killing of "John Alite's Informants"
John Alite, a former member of the Gambino crime family, turned informant to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. Alite later revealed that he was responsible for the deaths of multiple people, some of whom were suspected informants.
Alite recounted how the Mafia would go to extreme lengths to eliminate informants. He mentioned that individuals who cooperated with the authorities were often killed, and their bodies disposed of in ways that made identification nearly impossible.
Alite's testimony and the subsequent investigations revealed how the Mafia viewed informants as expendable and showed the deadly consequences of cooperating with law enforcement.
Focus on informants who died in prison
Whitey Bulger (USA)
Bulger was a notorious Boston mob boss and longtime FBI informant. After being captured and imprisoned, Bulger was beaten to death in 2018 in a federal prison in West Virginia. He had just been transferred and was placed in the general population, despite being a high-profile informant.
Many believe he was deliberately placed in harm's way. Other inmates reportedly knew about his informant past and saw him as a target.
Samuel Bronfman Kidnapping Informant (Canada)
One of the informants in the case allegedly committed suicide in custody, though others claimed he had been under extreme pressure and threats inside.
Carl Williams (Australia)
He was key informant in Melbourne's gangland war. While in Barwon Prison in 2010, Williams was brutally killed by another inmate, despite known threats. Criticisms arose over prison authorities failing to keep him separate or protect him adequately.
According to a 2014 investigation by the Marshall Project, multiple informants in the U.S. prison system have been assaulted or killed by other inmates, especially in gang-related contexts, after their cooperation with authorities became known.
Conclusion
I would just say that you need to be extremely careful with your OPSEC practices to avoid getting caught. Whether you choose to snitch or not, your life won't be easy if you do. Becoming an informant is not a good way to survive, it may offer immediate benefits, but it brings long-term consequences. Honestly, these issues can manifest in the short term as well, since cooperating with the police can lead to violence from other criminals. Keep in mind that you are the only one who can protect your anonymity, and relying on others is a mistake.
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Crabmeat
2025-08-04
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