Part 3: ‘Close and Tight’

Today, we’re sharing the first episode of the brand new podcast Spotlight: Snitch City, produced by The Boston Globe's award-winning Spotlight team. Praised by The Guardian and The Financial Times as a “must-listen” podcast, Snitch City brings you inside the secret world of police informants through one small city – at the forefront of America’s drug war – New Bedford, Massachusetts.In this specific episode, you’ll find yourself on the docks of New Bedford, hearing whispers about a rogue police officer harassing fishermen and stealing drugs, all of which come to a head one late night aboard a scalloping boat. The officer forces his way on board, saying an informant told him there would be drugs on board, and demands some. But when another officer, Mark Raposo, shows up, he thinks his colleague is in the middle of a “drug rip.” Now Raposo is ready to blow the whistle on what he’s seen. And it turns out that this officer’s abuse of the informant system is just the tip of the iceberg in this historic port city.To listen to the rest of the series, follow Spotlight: Snitch City on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.

NHPR's journalism is made possible by listeners like you. Please consider donating to support our work right here. 

NHPR's journalism is made possible by listeners like you. Please consider donating to support our work right here. 

NHPR's journalism is made possible by listeners like you. Please consider donating to support our work right here. 

NHPR's journalism is made possible by listeners like you. Please consider donating to support our work right here. 

Three years after his sentencing, Josh Cook and his mom have lived through even more consequences of America’s drug crisis and the ways we respond to it – each in their own dramatic and completely separate ways.

A young police officer unexpectedly finds herself back in New Hampshire, and she’s not the same person she was when she left. Something happened to her – to all of us. But for Officer Emelia Campbell, this thing still lives in her brain and her body. This is her story of survival.

This flood of roughly 1,300 people who’ve come forward all started with one man. How the widespread abuse at YDC finally came to light and how people are grappling with what justice and accountability even mean in a scandal so large.Click here to read the companion digital story made in collaboration with The Pudding.If you have suffered abuse and need someone to talk to, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. If you’re in a mental health crisis, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8. To support investigative journalism like The Youth Development Center at NHPR, click here.

Karen Lemoine didn’t arrive at YDC looking to start trouble. But the red flags she saw were hard to ignore, especially when it came to one kid in particular. What trying to do the right thing cost both of them – and why, 30 years later, they’re speaking up again.Click here to read the companion digital story, see archival photos and internal documents, and explore an interactive timeline of the alleged abuse, made in collaboration with The Pudding.If you have suffered abuse and need someone to talk to, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. If you’re in a mental health crisis, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8. To support investigative journalism like The Youth Development Center at NHPR, click here.

For three decades, Andy Perkins didn’t talk about what happened to him at a place called YDC – the Youth Development Center. Then, he saw something on the news, and he realized he wasn’t the only person with a story about YDC. Andy gives us a rare glimpse into the black box of the juvenile justice system. Click here to read the companion digital story made in collaboration with The Pudding.If you have suffered abuse and need someone to talk to, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. If you’re in a mental health crisis, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8. To support investigative journalism like The Youth Development Center at NHPR, click here.