Undercover officer grilled in Vegas Vagos probe

Defense lawyers in court Wednesday grilled the lead undercover officer accused of wrongdoing in a federal drug and weapons investigation into Vagos motorcycle gang members.

Agostino Brancato — a deputized agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — spent six hours on the witness stand defending his actions in the high-profile investigation.

His testimony came during a rare joint hearing before two federal judges to consider whether to dismiss separate drug cases against a former Vagos motorcycle gang leader because of “outrageous government conduct.”

Jeremy Halgat, 36, a former Vagos sergeant-at-arms, faces cocaine trafficking charges in one case before U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon and charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and carrying a weapon during the conspiracy in the other case before U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey.

The three-year investigation, dubbed Operation Pure Luck, was launched in 2010 with the secret help of a Vagos gang member, and two years later Brancato became a full-fledged member of the Vagos club while working undercover. Brancato, a veteran Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy experienced in investigating motorcycle gangs, was brought to Las Vegas to infiltrate the Vagos organization.

More than two dozen motorcycle gang members were charged with drug and weapons trafficking in indictments last year in the ATF-led investigation.

Gordon and Dorsey set aside three days to hear evidence this week and one day next week if needed.

Halgat’s defense lawyer, Melanie Hill, obtained a recommendation from U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach to dismiss the charges in the case before Gordon because of the alleged misconduct. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cristina Silva and Andrew Duncan later asked Gordon to reject the magistrate’s findings.

Dorsey is considering a motion to dismiss Halgat’s case before her because of similar outrageous-conduct allegations.

Both Gordon and Dorsey said in September that they wanted the joint hearing to save judicial resources before they issue separate orders in their cases.

In July, Ferenbach issued a written opinion concluding outrageous government conduct had occurred in the case before Gordon, and he blamed most of the wrongdoing on Brancato.

Ferenbach found that Brancato manufactured the cocaine case against Halgat, though Halgat had no criminal record and repeatedly told the agent in secretly recorded conversations that he did not want to traffic in drugs.

Ferenbach also said that Brancato “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.

On Wednesday, Brancato, a veteran of 23 years with the sheriff’s office in Los Angeles, addressed those allegations on the witness stand, as Hill played recorded conversations of his dealings with Halgat that she said bolstered her misconduct claims. Some of the tapes were hard to hear and distinguish who was talking, and Brancato told Hill several times that transcripts of recordings she quoted from were not accurate.

Both Gordon and Dorsey sometimes had trouble following the recording conversations and Hill’s line of questioning.

Brancato denied manufacturing the drug case against Halgat, who goes by the nickname “Maniak.”

After Hill played an audiotape purporting to be Halgat telling Brancato in strong terms that he didn’t want to participate in any cocaine deals, Brancato testified that he couldn’t recall Halgat making the statement.

Brancato also acknowledged that he didn’t put in his investigative reports that Halgat was reluctant to do any illegal deals.

On one tape, Brancato is heard telling the case agents in the investigation that he would put misleading information in his report about the first of four cocaine deals with Halgat.

Brancato testified he regularly provided evidence and other information to the case agents during the investigation in the locked mailbox near his undercover home. The agents, who had keys to the mailbox, kept him under surveillance during the drug deals for his own safety and would scoop up the materials from the mailbox within minutes, he said.

After the first deal with Halgat, according to the tape, Brancato told the case agents that he would say in his report that he debriefed them at an undisclosed location, rather than disclose that he was secretly transferring evidence to them through the mailbox.

When pressed by Hill on the witness stand, he said he omitted the mailbox scenario to protect their undercover procedures.