The Nation - News from March 26, 1989

Drug-related internal corruption and other staff problems are the targets of a special group of “field associates” deployed throughout the nation by the U.S. Customs Service. Spokesman Richard Weart said the agents “are assigned to a district office or regional office or to the office of enforcement” and are “to be alert for serious types of corruption. But they are not directly assigned to internal affairs.” The Washington Post reported that Assistant Customs Commissioner for Internal Affairs William F. Green had recruited about 40 agency employees as field associates assigned to key offices nationwide to “keep their eyes and ears open for any wrongdoing” among their colleagues. Weart said the approach of having employees act as informers against co-workers was “nothing new.”