DEA Wants Nearly $1.5 Million for Secret Files on Mexican Drug Kingpin 'El Chapo' Guzman Dolia Estevez - Forbes
go to original May 23, 2015

Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, on February 22, 2014, the day of his arrest in Mazatlán, Mexico. (Xinhua)

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which is believed to have played a leading role in the arrest of Mexican drug lord Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, wants a whopping $1.46 million fee in return for declassifying DEA’s secret files on the operation against the man who was once the world’s most wanted drug trafficker.  That is the fee the DEA would charge journalists who want to view and use the documents for reporting purposes.

The exorbitant fee stunned the National Security Archives (NSA), a Washington-based NGO created by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy. “It is certainly the largest federal estimate I have ever seen,” Nate Jones, NSA FOIA Project Director told me.

Asked by email if it was illegal, Jones said: “I do not think it is legal to charge such a high amount for the following reasons: If a request made is by someone working for a news media organization, the agency can only charge reproduction fees (much smaller than the ‘search and review’ fees DEA based its estimate on), and two, if an agency misses its 20 day deadline (or 10 day extension for ‘unusual circumstances’), it can only charge search and review fees.”

Jones said agencies use the specter of FOIA fees as a tool in a general attempt to avoid releasing information to the public.

...The requester asked DEA to waive any processing fees since releasing the information is in the public interest.

Read the rest at Forbes

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