FBI’s top man in Louisiana says heroin on rise, corruption a constant
In the experience of Mike Anderson, the FBI’s ranking agent in New Orleans for more than three years, rooting out public corruption often resembles a game of whack-a-mole.
A prosecution like that of former Mayor Ray Nagin may dissuade venal politicians from stealing for a time, creating a “cooling off period,” as Anderson puts it, akin to the calm that follows the incarceration of a violent street gang. Inevitably, though, the void is filled, as in the case of Ira Thomas, the former Orleans Parish School Board president who took a bribe as Nagin was awaiting trial on 21 corruption counts.
“We don’t see the kind of deterrent effect we’d like to see,” Anderson said in a recent interview, alluding to the parade of local officials who have served federal prison time in recent years.
