They're called "whisper" stops. (originating from 3rd party/agency intel), and, a "large amount"?.
I would say there is zero supporting anything more than a mere fraction.
Where would they get the time for 1,500+/- random stops a month in some cases if they already had a full schedule.
Automatic license plate readers are becoming the norm for almost all across the country, the first priority being stolen and felony warrants on registered owner.
I'm not sure if your referring to EPIC, which is not even necessarily traffickers and/or associates, but compiled data of all vehicles and individuals reported into the system by various agencies.
It is also the norm for city, county, state and task forces to report interactions with "major violators" to the DEA immediately.
That being said, I wouldn't necessarily agree 100% with any of the above.
I would welcome any documentation relating to the above, as I am sure all would.
Most of the time YOU wouldnt know whether a stop was from a "whisper" or just random profiling, they want it to look random so they put it like that it in the report. For example..
They get a call saying "An older white man will be driving through in a black tahoe with drugs" so when they see the car, they pull him over for a bullshit reason like failure to maintain lane and they get the drugs, then when you read it in these news article, the article says a man was stopped for a a traffic violation and drugs were found. So like i said, YOU dont know which of these cases you read from the internet were the result of random stops or tips. I would say 20% of the BIG busts come from tips.
and no, I was not talking about EPIC, DEA has a compiled list of drug traffickers and associates in a system that some interdiction teams use. It is mainly used in the border areas.