The Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA, in Texas is looking for a Houston-area contractor to incinerate evidence including drugs. The contractor must be able to burn various items like papers, cassette tapes, bulk marijuana, pharmaceuticals, and other incidental controlled substances.
A focal point of the gig is to be able to burn 1,000 pounds of marijuana per hour and for a minimum of eight consecutive hours per day. This contract will run from late March to September 30th, with rotation at the DEA’s Houston, Galveston, Beaumont, McAllen, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Laredo, Eagle Pass, Del Rio, San Antonio, Austin, and Waco departments.
While the contractor will need to do their own background checks and drug tests, the DEA says they reserve the right to conduct their own background check on the contractor’s personnel. The DEA also requires that the contractor have their own cameras, and they observe the right to access the videos to make sure the evidence is being properly destroyed.
The DEA says they will provide armed agents and contractors, who are authorized by the DEA, during scheduled burns.
Once this gig became news Houston’s DEA claimed to receive an abundance of inquiries. They sent a statement as follows:
“Although we appreciate local citizens’ willingness to offer their help, this is a complicated, large-scale government contract we’re required by law to bid every few years, and there are usually only a handful of companies with the necessary facilities and resources to help us dispose of this material. While it makes for an interesting headline, the truth is far more prosaic – our agents working across the Houston Division make a huge number of great cases, and as a result, we seize a tremendous amount of illegal drugs. Arranging for the save and effective destruction of these drugs is just part of the job.”
