That's been out the window for a while. Now they do it, but it's just not admissible in court. Another line that gets crossed is false flagging for another agency.

Some of the Arizona guys got busted in a situation where they had been led to believe they were being recruited for a Phoenix Force style black ops operation against a cartel. Their FBI contact developed enough trust with them to transition from recon operations to an elaborate hit on a ranch bein used as a cartel safehouse. This was supposedly going to have a major, cash, weapons, and dope stash on site. The mission being to go dark with a cover story to friends and family which would account for a few days of being out of circulation. Conduct recon and raid on the compound, terminate all opposition, commandeer all desired assets and then reconnect with the handler once the mission was complete.

They agreed to the mission but apparently also agreed to resell confiscated narcotics, which in turn would make it appear to be just another dope robbery in the eyes of the law if caught. When they showed up for the "raid" they ran headlong into an FBI SWAT unit that was waiting for them. They quickly and eagerly surrendered, thinking it was just an impressively elaborate training exercise, or had been set up by a corrupt agent working for the cartel and higher ups would figure it out and get them out of trouble. They are all in federal custody where the tanks controlled by the same cartels they thought they were going to rob.

That's the faction which was most friendly to Ritzheimers group. The ones unfriendly to them were Mcconnels group. Apparently the unlawful raid on the narco safehouse was one of the various propositions the Feds were putting people through out there. Like some quasi psychological stuff on the group mentality.

My read on this is that when they brought Mcconnels group in, and Bundy went for a dialogue with the FBI, they were trying to integrate that group while everybody knew they were trying to get along diplomatically with the Feds while pursuing the issue with the BLM land grabs and the records supposedly held at Malheur.