Investigators were just getting into “the meat and potatoes” of the multimillion-dollar Tang Organization marijuana case when someone sent a letter tipping off its main target.
The February 2008 anonymous letter to politically connected Thornton restaurateur Dan Tang sent his associates scrambling to dismantle their grow houses. It also forced the North Metro Task Force and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents who’d been working the case to conduct a takedown much earlier than they’d planned, potentially jeopardizing months of police work.
At the time, authorities were convinced the leak had come from within the task force, and they vowed to root out its source.
But documents filed as part of a civil rights lawsuit associated with the case and interviews with people involved raise questions about how law enforcement policed itself. For instance:
• Rather than have the FBI or another outside agency investigate, the DEA initiated an investigation into the leak. The task force’s board of governors then assigned two local police officers to assist.
• Though everyone on the task force was a suspect, members were not required to cooperate with the investigation, and there were no repercussions for not cooperating.
• Task force employees expressed concern to the DEA investigators that talking to them might lead to retribution at the task force or in their parent police departments.
• After initially cooperating with investigators, a police sergeant failed a polygraph and then refused through his attorney to turn over his computer to the DEA. The sergeant, described by his lawyer as unfairly targeted and having “an exemplary 30-plus-year career in law enforcement,” later was promoted to police commander.
• Though the DEA produced a report of the investigation so lengthy that its summary exceeded 150 pages, the U.S. attorney’s office determined that there was not probable cause to file charges.
• In late 2009, the task force asked the FBI to conduct “an independent investigation into the entire case, the origin of the leak and of all individuals and agencies associated with the task force, to include the board,” said Sgt. Candi Baker, a spokeswoman for the task force.
The task force board has not received any information from the FBI. Nor will the FBI confirm for the task force board whether an investigation ever was opened or conducted, Baker said.
Three years after the letter was sent to Tang, its source has not been found, and most of the members of the task force from that time continue to work in local police departments.
Baker called the leak “an affront to the board, the members of the task force and to the entire judicial system.”
“The board wants to know who leaked the information,” she said. “When the person responsible for leaking the information is identified, the board will do everything in its power to hold that person criminally and administratively accountable.”
Spokesmen for the FBI and the DEA declined to comment.
A letter, a demand and a dollar amount
The North Metro Task Force includes law enforcement officers from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and the Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Federal Heights, Northglenn, Thornton and Westminster police departments. A board of leaders of each department oversees the group.
In July 2007, Detective Dan Joyce, a task force member from the Northglenn Police Department, received a tip about a marijuana grow operation involving Tang, some of his family members and employees of his Heaven Dragon restaurant.
The DEA was brought in, and by February 2008, detectives had located more than a dozen grow houses. They also were developing information on a wider criminal enterprise that stretched to other states.
“It was really just the good part of the investigation,” Joyce recalled in a deposition taken last fall. “We were right in the meat of it.”
On Feb. 13, a wiretap was put on three phones, one of which belonged to Tang’s wife. The next day, Chinese translators listening in on one of the lines heard targets talking about a letter Tang had received indicating that he was part of a large-scale federal investigation.
Concerned that Tang and his associates might move or get rid of evidence, authorities conducted a takedown on Feb. 16. The bust turned up more than 24,000 marijuana plants inside 25 grow operations and more than $1 million.
In a closet in one of the apartments, authorities found a copy of the one-page, typed letter. It was addressed to Tang, with his six-digit birth date typed beside his name. It included a phone number for Tang to call.
“You can, with assistance, avoid prosecution, deportation and seizure of all of your assets,” it stated. “Don’t waste too much time deciding.”
On the outside of the envelope, someone had written, “$300,000.”
Three tips sent to Tang
The letter was the third known tip that Tang or a member of his family had received, according to a law enforcement source. But this was the first one authorities were confident was written by a cop.
The letter was in “cop speak,” and the details were too specific to have been known by anyone outside the investigation, according to court documents. It was standard procedure for members of the task force to follow names with numeric dates of birth, as the letter’s author had done.
In April 2008, the board of governors announced that two DEA agents would lead the investigation into the leak. The two agents heading up the investigation told a meeting of the task force that everyone was considered a suspect.
A federal lawsuit was filed against the task force, the cities of Thornton and Northglenn and several police supervisors in which Joyce and Thornton police officer Robert Lopez claim they were retaliated against because they encouraged their colleagues to cooperate with the DEA.
The defendants have denied those claims.
Baker and an attorney for a member of the command staff said officers were encouraged to cooperate in the investigation, but that the board had no legal grounds to force them to do so because of the constitutional right against self-incrimination.
One of the three sergeants on the task force sat for two interviews in addition to the polygraph test that he failed. He also allowed DEA agents to review financial records and to interview his family members before he stopped cooperating, his lawyer said. The Denver Post is not naming the sergeant because he was not charged with a crime.
At least one of the other sergeants and one detective who were asked to take a polygraph refused, according to court files.
DEA agents traced the cellphone number provided on the letter to a phone purchased at the Westminster Mall, according to court records. The phone was purchased by a teenage girl whom investigators determined had used a fake name and address.
Meanwhile, of the 23 people arrested as part of the drug investigation, 21 had charges filed against them in either state or federal court.
Of those, two cases have not yet been resolved, while four cases were dismissed and five people were sentenced to probation.
Seven defendants have been sentenced to prison, with sentences ranging from 14 to 30 months. Three were sentenced to time already served.
Tang, whom authorities say provided the money for down payments on the grow houses, pleaded guilty to money laundering in November 2009 and agreed to forfeit $1 million. In April 2010, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He is scheduled to be released in December.
Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661 or sburnett@denverpost.com
