Court tosses warrant after FBI’s Internet ‘ruse’

A federal magistrate judge is dismissing an FBI search warrant that led to the arrest of as many as eight people accused of running an illegal online sports betting operation out of Las Vegas.

The warrant raised eyebrows after it was revealed that FBI agents cut the suspects’ Internet access, then posed as cable repairmen to enter their luxury hotel rooms and gather evidence that was later used to support the bureau’s search warrant.  

{mosads}As a result, Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen ruled the warrant was “fatally flawed.”

When applying for the warrant, investigators failed to disclose that their suspicions were largely founded on a “ruse,” Leen said. It doesn’t matter that subsequent evidence gathered with the search warrant turned up more incriminating information.

“A search warrant is never validated by what its execution recovers,” Leen said.

The  decision must be approved by a district court judge. The men who were charged in the case have filed a lawsuit against the government.

The incident is just one of several in recent months that have led to questions about government officials manipulating the Internet during investigations.

A woman is suing the Drug Enforcement Agency, after a DEA agent created a fake Facebook account for her, using photos the agency had seized from her phone. The DEA used the imitation page to communicate with suspected criminals.

The FBI also received heavy criticism after it confirmed it had written a fake Associated Press story to try and lure a suspect into clicking on a link to the story, which would give agents details on his computer’s location and Internet address.

The bureau has been pressing a little-known rules committee to give it greater authority to remotely hack and spy on computers. The FBI argues it needs to be allowed to request a warrant to search a computer, even if it does not know where the computer is located. Privacy advocates are concerned such a change would give authorities expansive surveillance power.