Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
relationship is less than cooperative, and, as mentioned, it may well be
that the local police or intelligence agencies are the ones following you.
This is particularly true in many developing nations, where corruption is
rampant and the police sometimes are working for the bad guys. The
embassy will know whether that is likely and will proceed accordingly.
How can you check for the presence of people following you? Remem-
ber, your goal is to identify that you are being followed without tipping
your hand. During David's tenure with the DEA, he participated in hun-
dreds of surveillance operations. Sometimes the surveillance would get
burnt. Targets wouldn't do anything to tip their hand but later would con-
fide to an informant or an associate on a wiretapped line that they were
being followed. Occasionally a bad guy would write down a license plate
number and get a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) check done on it.
DEA vehicles were “flagged” with the local DMV, and the state authorities
would notify the agency if someone ran the plates. On rare occasions a
target would try to confront a surveillance agent or simply wave, acknowl-
edging the agent's presence. The object for our purposes is to figure out
that you are being followed without the surveillance team realizing that
you have observed them.
Many techniques are effective for picking up the presence of people
following you. Counterespionage schools and schools specifically designed
to teach criminals to watch out for surveillance exist. Years ago, Colom-
bian cocaine traffickers began mandating that their workers abroad attend
these schools to prevent them from getting arrested in possession of mil-
lion of dollars in cash or drugs. In schools operated by expatriate Amer-
icans, Cubans, Israelis, and Russians, students were trained to drive in a
manner designed to frustrate surveillance.
The premise of these techniques is actually quite simple: Do things
that are unusual and see if anyone does the same thing. For example, one
such technique is called “squaring the block.” Drive to an intersection and
turn right (or left). Drive to the next intersection and make another right
(or left). Repeat the process twice more, and you are back where you
started, going in the same direction. This is generally an unusual move to
make. Look in your rearview mirror. Is anyone doing the same thing? If
so, you may be being followed.
Another method is to drive into a store parking lot and see who fol-
lows you in. Does the same vehicle leave when you do? (Remember that
if multiple vehicles are used, someone else in another vehicle may follow
you out.) If you are on a highway, try to vary your speed. Does anyone seem
