The case of Andrew Sadek, a North Dakota college student who was coerced, his mother says, into being a confidential informant for a drug task force, made the national news Sunday when CBS TV's "60 Minutes" aired a segment about it.
Sadek disappeared May 1, 2014. His body was found almost two months later in the Red River, about a mile north of Breckenridge, Minn. He had been shot in the head and was wearing a backpack full of rocks.
His parents didn't know that their only surviving son had gotten himself into legal trouble — he was busted for selling a total of $80 worth of marijuana in two transactions to a person who turned out to be another informant. North Dakota law makes that a Class A felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000.
Sadek was never arrested, never charged, never told that, if convicted, he likely would have been sentenced to probation or jail time rather than prison, said his mother, Tammy Sadek in an interview Sunday.
Instead, he was recruited to become a confidential informant by Jason Weber, then head of the Southeast Multi-County Agency Drug Task Force.
A videotape of Weber's talk with Sadek can be seen here.
"That was his 20th birthday," his mother said. "His last birthday. He's clearly nervous … For them to say in their report that he was not pressured is ridiculous."
Sadek only completed about half of his assignment to wear a wire and do undercover drug buys on and around the campus of the State College of Science in Wahpeton, N.D. Then, authorities said, he stopped contacting them. His mother, however, said he was still living in the same residence hall and shouldn't have been difficult to find.
