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Prison time looms for drug-bust defendants

By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 6, 2009 at 11:17 a.m.
Updated January 6, 2009 at 11:17 a.m.

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More than a dozen of the people indicted in a sweeping 2007 federal gang and drug bust are scheduled to be sentenced to prison this month, bringing the case nearer to a close.

Three-quarters of the roughly 85 defendants have entered guilty pleas. The Department of Justice is pointing to the bust — the work of a local, state and federal task force — as a textbook example for law enforcement.

"We have a model that works very successfully now," U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid said.

Authorities spent more than 18 months building the case, which they said targeted some of the most violent gangs in the Denver area.

The investigation combined the expertise of police from cities such as Aurora and Denver with the Department of Correction's gang intelligence staff and resources of federal agencies such as the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Eid said a key was the "federal hammer" of drug and firearms charges, which carry much longer potential prison sentences than state charges. A federal drug conspiracy charge, for example, carries a maximum of life in prison.

Those looming charges allowed authorities to pressure defendants into plea deals, which in many cases required cooperation on other investigations.

Among them were the murders of Denver Broncos player Darrent Williams and a woman slated to testify in an attempted murder case. Police say she was killed to keep her quiet.

"Unless you get that federal hammer, you can't squeeze these guys the way they need to be squeezed," Eid said.

The approach has drawn criticism from some defense attorneys, however.

They say the federal drug charges were trumped up and the indictment too far-reaching because police didn't have enough evidence to hold suspects in a series of other crimes, including the Williams murder.

"That is (prosecution) in bad faith," lawyer Alaurice Tafoya- Modi told a judge last month.

Tafoya-Modi represents Willie D. Clark, who was charged in the federal drug case and, later, with the murders of Williams and the witness, Kalonniann Clark (the two are not related).

Clark's federal drug case was dismissed so the state murder case may proceed, although the U.S. Attorney's Office may refile the charges if he is acquitted in the killings.

At least two other cases also have been dismissed: one because a defendant died and another because prosecutors concluded that the suspect was an unwitting participant in her son's money laundering.

burnetts@RockyMountain News.com or 303-954-5343