ABSTRACT
Informers are not unique to the world of drugs and trafficking but their activities throw up new questions and put others into greater relief. Definitions of informers vary. The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA 1982: 55) defines informers as ‘any non-law enforcement person who supplies information about criminal activities to a police officer’. In Britain, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (henceforth RIPA) includes informers as a ‘covert human intelligence source’ (henceforth CHIS), defined as someone who establishes or maintains a personal or other relationship with another for the covert purpose of:
• using that relationship to obtain information or to provide another person with access to that information; or
• disclosing information obtained by the use of that relationship or as a consequence of that relationship.
