barry cooper

By Stephen C. Webster, RawStory

 

Barry Cooper, a former Texas police officer who turned against the drug war and executed a reverse-sting operation against the Odessa police department, will walk free on all related charges, an attorney for Ector County announced Tuesday.

 

Cooper, perhaps the nation's best-known drug war activist thanks to his "Never Get Busted" DVDs, set up a fake marijuana grow house in Odessa, wired it for sound and video, then used an anonymous letter to bait police into a Dec. 2008 raid.

 

The letter was delivered to a local church, which eventually turned it over to police. Not long after that officers came crashing through the door. Read more »

By Stephen C. Webster, Rawstory

 

One former drug cop's crusade of civil disobedience against America's drug war establishment has turned into a nightmare for his family, which now faces the very real threat of losing a father and husband for up to six months or more.

 

Barry Cooper stood handcuffed in front of the state's capitol building on Friday morning, after he'd turned himself in on a warrant for allegedly making a False Report to a Peace Officer. Once one of the Permian Basin Narcotics Task Force's most successful agents, Cooper has refashioned himself an anti-prohibition activist and filmmaker; or, America's "drug war insurgent," as area media declared.

 

With the help of a benefactor who hoped to embarrass the Odessa Police Department, Cooper and a team of researchers, videographers and lawyers staged a high-media assault on the west Texas cops in late 2008. By setting up a fake marijuana grow-house retrofitted with small pine trees and high-heat light bulbs, then ensuring the delivery of an anonymous tip about the home to a local pastor, a trap was set. Read more »

By. Stephen C. Webster

Barry and Candi Cooper, a married duo well-known in the world of drug reform activism, have temporarily lost custody of Candi’s youngest child due to misdemeanor charges stemming from a recent “KopBusters” sting operation against a police officer in Williamson County, Texas.

Pot smoking moms and dads of America, pay attention: This could happen to you too. Although the Coopers’ case is a bit more unusual than most and not all Child Protective Services entanglements over marijuana will result in children being taken or custody being modified, it can and does happen.

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By. Stephen C. Webster

Original post, Wednesday, March. 3, 4:22 p.m. (updates below): I’ve just been informed by Candi Cooper that the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department raided the Never Get Busted headquarters in Travis County at approximately 6 p.m. on Tuesday night. Barry Cooper has been taken into custody.

Officers allegedly seized their computers, phones and other digital media. Barry is allegedly being charged with a misdemeanor offense. Candi claimed the charge is making a false report to a police officer, in relation to a sting operation her husband recently carried out against an officer in Liberty Hill, Texas.

In his sting operation against Liberty Hill Police Captain George Nassour, Cooper did make someone in Cooper’s crew made anonymous phone calls regarding a suspicious package possibly containing drug paraphernalia, as a way of testing the officer to see if he would steal the money. Cooper alleges that Nassour did in fact steal $45 from the trap bag, thereby committing a felony by tampering with evidence. The Liberty Hill Police Chief confirmed that an investigation was underway following a confrontation with Cooper.

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