Agent’s use of weed examined

Wizard Weed smells like marijuana. It looks like marijuana. It burns like marijuana.

But according to one former federal agent, Wizard Weed is a substance sold on the Internet legally because it does not contain the active ingredient in marijuana, commonly known as THC.

The question Friday was whether an undercover U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent acted inappropriately when he smoked a joint during an undercover sting operation.

Defense attorneys representing six defendants snared in a 15-month investigation dubbed Operation Sin City Ink alleged undercover agent Peter McCarthy entrapped their clients and engaged in "outrageous conduct" by smoking an illegal substance during the probe. His actions were recorded on surveillance tape.

But during a motion hearing on the defense's allegations, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge George Foley that McCarthy was inhaling Wizard Weed. McCarthy himself said as much.

"You can't get much more obvious than doing it in a live feed and recording it to a disc and presenting it in evidence," McCarthy said Friday.

McCarthy was one of two ATF agents who oversaw an undercover sting operation designed to capture Southern Nevada's most violent gun-toting, drug-dealing criminals.

He and Special Agent Mark Gomez opened a bogus tattoo parlor called Hustler Tattoo inside a strip mall at 2640 Highland Drive in September 2007. They had jailed informants spread the word that the owners of the tattoo parlor dealt drugs and weapons from the back office of the business.

McCarthy posed as the shop's owner; Gomez was his underling. The activities in the tattoo parlor were recorded and fed live to ATF supervisors' offices and homes.

With short graying hair, a neatly trimmed goatee and reading glasses, McCarthy appeared more capable of crunching numbers during tax time than befriending alleged hard-core gang-bangers. But that is exactly what he did.

He first established a relationship with Christopher Sangalang, one of the six defendants who appeared in court Friday. Sangalang, who worked at the tattoo parlor, claimed to be a member of the 74 Hoover Crips, one of Los Angeles' largest and most violent street gangs, McCarthy said.

Through Sangalang, the two agents established close ties with 10 other purported gang members.

By November 2007, McCarthy was purchasing stolen firearms from the defendants. In April 2008, the agents crafted a plan to have the suspects help rob a drug stash home that they described as housing 100 kilograms of cocaine.

According to McCarthy, Sangalang and co-defendants Deandre Patton and Alfredo Flores were eager to round up a crew to raid the home, which actually was a set-up.

"He (Sangalang) bragged about how he could get a hard-core crew together ... killers," McCarthy said.

"They said they would kill everyone in the house and leave a couple of kilos in the house to make it look like a drug deal gone bad."

On May 15, the day the robbery was supposed to take place, Sangalang and his crew showed up at the tattoo parlor. Three of the men were dressed in bogus SWAT outfits and one in a police uniform.

"Don't let me down. I got to retire. I'm too old," McCarthy told Sangalang as they headed out of the tattoo parlor, according to surveillance video played in court Friday.

The agents directed the fake cops to a Main Street warehouse to pick up weapons. When they arrived, they were met by a swarm of real cops. Shots were fired and ultimately 10 men were taken into custody on charges related to possessing unregistered weapons and illegal drugs.

Sangalang, Patton, Flores, Roderick Jones, Derek Jones and Robert Williams are scheduled to go to trial next year. On Friday, they slumped in their chairs with their chins in their palms as they watched more than an hour of video surveillance tape.

They also heard testimony from Charles Fuller, executive director for the International Association of Undercover Officers.

A former ATF agent who retired in 1994, Fuller said when he came across Wizard Weed on the Internet, he thought it would be a useful tool for officers performing undercover drug investigations.

"I'd smoke it before the suspect arrived so that the odor is there; that is typically how it is used," Fuller said. "It helps convince the suspect that you're not an officer."

Defense attorneys are arguing, however, that this particular batch of Wizard Weed was not thoroughly tested to show the absence of THC.

Fuller said he has sold the substance to agents around the world and gave Gomez about seven grams when the two met during an October 2006 seminar in Las Vegas. Later, after legal challenges had been made, Fuller said Gomez asked him to write a letter confirming that he supplied him with Wizard Weed. Fuller complied and added that the Honolulu Police Department conducted a test on the substance and determined it did not contain THC.

Fuller said that test is the only one with which he is familiar. He said he never tested the substance before supplying it to law enforcement officers.

Foley is expected to rule on the defense team's motion by the end of the year.

Contact reporter Adrienne Packer at apacker@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.