DEA investigating after Florida city website posts drug informer details online

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DEA investigating after Florida city website posts emails online containing sensitive information about drug informants
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Confidential emails regarding drug deals and stings were uploaded to West Palm Beach City Hall's website
The details were posted as part of city's drive for greater transparency
It's not known if the sensitive information will jeopardize the progress of any current cases
WPB Police chief plans to meet with mayor to 'make sure this doesn't happen again'

Published: 20:53 EST, 14 September 2015 | Updated: 21:03 EST, 14 September 2015

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The DEA has said it is investigating after a number of sensitive emails containing details of various criminal investigations that identified the targets of drug stings was posted on a Florida city website.

Information, including the identities of confidential informants, descriptions of meeting times and even the places and the names of undercover officers were all posted to a website belonging to the City of West Palm Beach.

The emails were posted by city spokesman Elliot Cohen as part of the city's new 'transparency' effort, in response to a media organization's public records request.

Uploaded: The details were posted online as part of city's drive for greater transparency

Blame game: Jeri Muoio, the Mayor of West Palm Beach, said the emails were released before officials had a chance to redact sensitive information

But it's effort to be completely open backfired and the the city ended up having to take down the 2,000 emails from its WPB.org page on Friday.

Sergeant. Dave Lefont told WPFB News, 'We are obviously concerned for the safety of our officers.'

The police chief and city administration officials are meeting on Tuesday morning to find out how the sensitive information ended up beingwas posted and to 'ensure this type of incident doesn't happen again.'

The sensitive information was online for three days.

The records, which were posted on a link from the city’s home page, included explosive details that seldom see the light of day.

The Mayor plans to meet with police on Tuesday, however it's not known if any cases were jeopardized by the release of the information

One email, sent from a Drug Enforcement Agency task force member to multiple federal and local West Palm Beach police officers, detailed a drug buy made earlier this month. It included the name of the target, his address, his vehicle and his license plate number, plus the names of the officers who were surveilling him.

Worse, it named the confidential informant who was going to sell the man drugs, including her address.

Other emails named confidential informants in other cases. Another email, between two West Palm Beach police officers, mentioned two ongoing operations.

It’s unclear how many people saw or downloaded the documents, which were included in roughly 2,200 pages of emails.

Mayor Jeri Muoio released a statement Monday afternoon, which read: 'Elliot is not responsible for ensuring that public records requests do not contain inappropriate material.

The individual departments, which are the custodians of any records being requested, are responsible for checking the content. Elliot simply passes on the documents he receives from the departments.

In this case, it appears the departments did not have the opportunity to review the information before it was released. As a result, it is essential that we review our process to see if any changes need to be made.'

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and the State Attorney's Office are also looking into whether any emails jeopardized any of their cases