Sting Operation

In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive investigative technique designed to catch a person in the act of attempting to commit a crime. The mere use of undercover officers or informants does not by itself establish the legal defense of entrapment, though defendants frequently raise it in response to a sting. A well-known early example is Operation Flagship, a 1985 sting in which US Marshals arrested more than one hundred fugitives by posing as a television company and inviting them to an event at the Washington Convention Center. Stings are not without controversy: in one case targeting an alleged plot to bomb a synagogue and shoot down National Guard aircraft, a US judge publicly criticized the FBI for its reliance on what the judge called an unsavory informant.