UPDATE: Case Dismissed
Reporters Dugan Arnett and Andrew Ryan are back in court to learn the fate of a case that has spanned eight years. In 2017, New Bedford police accused...
EPISODE 5: “All this for nothing”
Two former New Bedford informants tell shocking stories. The first: a woman who didn’t even know she was being used as an informant by the cop she was...
EPISODE 4: Cops & Robbers
When Frank "Rizzo" Simmons was a big-time drug dealer in New Bedford in the '90s, he went toe-to-toe with a drug cop named Paul Oliveira. After a majo...
EPISODE 3: The Chief
Meet New Bedford’s police chief, Paul Oliveira. He’s had a hand in both of the stories we’ve already heard. And the Spotlight Team's reporting shows t...
EPISODE 2: Blind Trust
Spotlight reporter Dugan Arnett receives a desperate phone call from an informant who’s now in prison. He says he's afraid for his life because other ...
EPISODE 1: Officer Pastillas
On the docks of New Bedford, Massachusetts, whispers about a rogue police officer harassing fishermen and stealing drugs come to a head aboard a scall...
Trailer
In a nation addicted to drugs, police across the country have become addicted to informants. Nowhere is this more apparent than in one New England por...
Trailer Two
In just a few weeks, the Boston Globe’s new podcast will drop. Informants are the nameless, faceless cogs of the criminal justice system. And their us...
Coming Soon… Snitch City
Confidential informants are the backbone of America’s war on drugs. But the way police use them has remained almost entirely hidden. Until now. Learn...