From the archive: One drug dealer, two corrupt cops and a risky FBI sting

档案记录:一名毒贩,两名腐败警察,以及一次冒险的FBI诱捕行动

The Audio Long Read

社会与文化

2025-02-26

41 分钟
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单集简介 ...

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2017: Davon Mayer was a smalltime dealer in west Baltimore who made an illicit deal with local police. When they turned on him, he decided to get out – but escaping that life would not prove as easy as falling into it. By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee. Read by Lola Ogunyemi. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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  • This is the Guardian.

  • The Guardian Archive.

  • Long read.

  • Hi, my name is Udigit Patacharjee and I'm a magazine writer and author based in Washington,

  • D.C. i'm a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine

  • and a contributor to National Geographic and other publications.

  • My story is titled One Drug Dealer, Two Corrupt Cops, and a Risky FBI Sting.

  • The thing that drew me to the story was the character of Davon Mayer.

  • I had heard about him because I had read about this case when it was covered in the news media,

  • but I just felt that he had a much deeper story to tell.

  • He was this young kid who was 12 when he started to deal drugs on the streets of Baltimore.

  • And then at some point, maybe when he was 14 or 15,

  • he was approached by two Baltimore City detectives

  • from the Narcotics department who started to pressure him

  • into giving up the hiding locations of drugs stashed by other drug dealers.

  • And they would rob these drug dealers and they would bring him those stashes

  • and force him to then sell those drugs for money.

  • So that's how this case began.

  • And I was very intrigued

  • that Davon ultimately made the choice to go to the FBI against these two crooked cops.