Andrew Chambers: The informant who changed the drug war
Andrew Chambers was an informant with a history of successful cases, but controversies surrounding his testimonies led to a turning point for the DEA.
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The story of Andrew Chambers is truly remarkable, and one that could easily be mistaken for a movie. Chambers is known for being one of the highest-paid informants working for the Drug Enforcement Administration in the United States, known as the DEA.
He was reportedly paid around $4million by the government during his undercover work, with half of that money coming from the DEA.
After spending 16 years working undercover investigating the dark underbelly of the drug world across the United States, Chambers halted his work in 2000. It was discovered that he had committed perjury while on the witness stand.
Join us here at Sky HISTORY as we dive further into the work of Andrew Chambers, a man who changed the way that the DEA handled the war on drugs.
The undercover life of Andrew Chambers
Chambers became a drug informant in 1984. He worked for the aforementioned DEA, but he also worked alongside various other federal agencies.
His work began in St Louis, Missouri. Chambers – a former Marine – went to a local DEA office and told them he was interested in becoming an informant. Despite his enthusiasm, he was not eligible to become an agent as he did not have a college degree. However, he was offered the position of a freelance informant, which he accepted.
Despite the DEA mostly assigning criminal suspects to informant roles – to give them the chance to lower their sentence – Chambers was an exception. He had no criminal charges pending, which led to more believability as a witness.
During his time as an informant, Chambers took on many roles to integrate himself with the local drug community in different states across America. From a St Louis cocaine dealer to a member of the Crips gang from Los Angeles, Chambers played a variety of parts.
When it comes to his motives for becoming an informant, colleagues of Chambers have said that he simply wanted to do the right thing. He achieved great success during his work. Across almost 300 cases that took place in a range of areas in the US, Chambers managed to obtain around 445 arrests. Not only that, but the drug seizures totalled around 1.5 tonnes of drugs, including methamphetamines, heroin, and cocaine. The seizures also accounted for around $6million worth of assets.
Chambers reportedly made around $2.2million in expenses and rewards directly from the DEA. He was also well respected. Terry Parham – previously the chief spokesman for the Washington DC DEA branch – referred to Chambers as 'a hero who put his life on the line many times'.
The downfall of Andrew Chambers
In 2000, Andrew Chambers was found to have committed perjury numerous times. A review of his testimonies found this to be true in at least 16 of the cases he worked on.
Chambers argued vehemently that he had never lied about the cases, but admitted to lying about himself. Records showed that he had not been truthful about his personal information, background, and the use of his aliases.
It was also revealed that Chambers had been arrested six times previously on counts of domestic assault, theft, forgery and soliciting prostitution.
The lies that Chambers told put tons of felony convictions under serious scrutiny, jeopardising the work he had done with the DEA over the years.
The DEA had to 'deactivate' Chambers so he was no longer an informant. However, in 2013, it was reported that he had been reactivated and was working undercover in Phoenix.
The impact of Andrew Chambers on the drug war
Andrew Chambers's case changed the way that the DEA handled informants within their drug cases. Serious reviews and reforms had to be introduced to ensure that wayward operatives would not jeopardise their cases.
Although Andrew Chambers is often heralded for his undercover work, he is also a cause of much controversy. He subsequently caused a significant change in terms of the transparency, ethics, and accountability upheld by the DEA.
Because of this, he is a key figure in altering the way that the organisation would fight the war on drugs.
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