Stings target plannned robberies

AUSTIN (AP) - Five men met at a South Austin hotel last month with someone they thought was a disgruntled member of a drug-trafficking organization.

A federal court affidavit shows they brought weapons for a
robbery they thought would net them cocaine from a local drug stash
house. But the person who set up the robbery was really an
undercover agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, and the men accused of being prepared to
carry it out were arrested.

The Austin American-Statesman reports Sunday that the Aug. 18
bust was the second similar one in about a month by the ATF in
Austin. Defense lawyers say they are looking closely at the role of
confidential informants in each case and the possibility of an
entrapment defense.