EDITORIAL: Tainted investigation

Law enforcement agencies have a difficult enough task even when they have the support of the citizens they serve. It certainly doesn’t get any easier when that public trust is broken, something the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives learned earlier this month.

As the Review-Journal’s Jeff German reported, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach on July 15 recommended dismissal of felony drug trafficking charges against a former officer of the Vagos motorcycle gang because of “outrageous” government conduct by the lead undercover agent in the case. Judge Ferenbach determined that Agostino Brancato, a deputized agent with the ATF, manufactured the cocaine case against Jeremy Halgat, who had no criminal record and repeatedly told the agent in secretly recorded conversations that he did not want to traffic in drugs.

Despite Mr. Brancato’s denial, the judge said “there is no doubt” he “falsified” a report of one of the alleged drug transactions and that supervisors of his ATF-led task force “did not dissuade him” from doing it.

Mr. German noted that Mr. Brancato was the lead undercover agent in “Operation Pure Luck,” a three-year joint investigation led by the ATF into drug and illegal weapons dealing by members of motorcycle gangs. Las Vegas police, North Las Vegas police and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office were part of the task force. More than two dozen motorcycle gang members were charged last year in a series of federal and state indictments, Mr. Halgat among them.

But as Judge Ferenbach rightly noted in his decision, it seems unlikely that the charges against Mr. Halgat can hold up, though the Nevada U.S. Attorney’s Office does plan to file an opposition to the recommendation. Said the judge: “Can this court rely on the chain of custody of evidence that the government will proffer against Halgat at trial? Did supervisors permit other falsifications?”

The scary issue here — beyond what the judge deemed “manufacturing of crime” against Mr. Halgat — is when federal agents (or officers of any agency) run amok. Nobody is safe when these officers are operating outside the margins. The ATF has some work to do to fix its tarnished reputation from this case and restore the public’s trust. And it starts with making sure its agents operate within the laws they’re sworn to uphold.