Subject: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

• Vanishing Point

  Millionaire pot king Robert Golding's biggest deal was with the DEA agents who let him walk.

  July 6, 2000

• A Broken Code

  The supermax snitch unit was supposed to bust prison gangs, but who was really rolling over?

  July 27, 2000

• Follow That Story

  A pot dealer goes down in flames.

  August 17, 2000

• American High

  With Traffic, Steven Soderbergh takes on the unwinnable war.

  January 4, 2001

• Toxic Shock

  Starting a meth lab takes little skill or cash. The cleanup is another story.

  September 4, 2003

• Letters

  February 10, 2000

• Letters to the Editor

  March 1, 2001

• Bardo Pond

  May 31, 2001

• Letters to the Editor

  December 6, 2001

• Backwash

  May 30, 2002

• Medical marijuana has become a growth industry in Colorado

  February 5, 2009

• The Hit Man Nobody Knows

  The government says he killed more people than Tim McVeigh. He lives in a cell a hundred miles from Denver. So how come you've never heard of La Quica?

  May 17, 2001

• DC10

  Encountering turbulence, but still flying.

  November 2, 2006

• Undercover of Night

  Violent shootouts and dangerous love in Michael Mann's visceral cop-series update.

  July 27, 2006

• Strip Search

  Jennifer Marcum's path ends and begins at Shotgun Willie's.

  June 29, 2006

• Thug Immortal

  Agitprop rapper Immortal Technique demands to be heard.

  July 21, 2005

• What's the Beef?

  Brawny juicers keep pumping steroids, so why aren't more serving time.

  May 26, 2005

• Breast Friend

  When a stripper decided to get something off her chest, it landed on this doctor.

  April 21, 2005

• The Chiva Game

  American hunger for black-tar heroin has made downtown Denver the land of opportunity for immigrant dealers.

  October 7, 2004

• Tin Can Alley

  Time to float your goat

  June 10, 2004

• The Maverick

  Telluride lawman Bill Masters is no dope. So what turned him against the war on drugs?

  May 20, 2004

• R.A.V.E. Review

  The R.A.V.E. Act could mean trouble for even legitimate promoters.

  August 28, 2003

• Off Limits

  Dollars and sense

  June 26, 2003

• Consumed

  Beer Bust

  April 24, 2003

• Confessions of an Ephedrine Eater

  This non-drowsy formula is an ancient Chinese secret.

  April 24, 2003

• From Locusts to Limos

  By Alan Prendergast

  The rise of the Tea Party

  April 10, 2003

• Follow That Story

  Hemp Burns Out

  November 22, 2001

• The Home of the Rave

  Promoters hurry to get their acts together -- before parents, police and the courts decide the party's over.

  February 22, 2001

• Target Practice

  A class-action suit becomes a vehicle for racial justice.

  January 25, 2001

• Hemp Takes a Hit

  The feds just might drive this growing industry out of its head.

  January 27, 2000

• Flight Diversions

  Rumors won't fly with those who lost their loved ones in a Colorado Springs plane crash.

  April 1, 1999

• Reach for the Sky!

  Two local lawmen go hunting for aliens on a top-secret stakeout.

  July 2, 1998

• Rough Landing

  June 5, 1997

• Liar, Liar

  A top DEA informant makes cases--and $200,000 a year--while breaking a few laws himself.

  May 8, 1997

• Feeling No Pain

  A morphine-addicted pharmacist hid his Colorado drug conviction and resumed work in California--for a while.

  August 29, 1996

• FADE TO BLACK

  September 20, 1995

• SHOOT UP FIRST, ANSWER QUESTIONS LATER

  August 16, 1995

• A multimillion-dollar weed ring goes down -- and threatens to take a prominent restaurant owner with it

  June 25, 2009

• Accused hepatitis-c passer Kristen Parker: A photo gallery

  A Kristen Parker photo sure to strike a chord with Rose Medical Center patients. Outrage continues to build over Kristen Parker, a surgical tech who was formally charged in federal court yesterday with multiple counts related to the exposure of patients at Rose Medical Center to hepatitis-C. The main story on the Denver Post's front page relates to the startling delay in linking Parker to numerous hep-C cases that first began cropping up back in April, and TV newscasts over the past day have ei

  July 7, 2009

• Former Bronco Travis Henry sentenced to three years in prison

  Travis Henry during his locker-room days. Back in September, former Denver Broncos running back Travis Henry was arrested in relation to a series of cocaine-related charges -- but because the drugs in question were found in Montana, the trial took place there rather than in Denver. That proceeding ended today with Henry earning 36 months in the pokey for his actions. Read the official account of the sentencing by clicking "Continue."

  July 15, 2009

• Another marijuana-grow operation is uprooted in Pike National Forest

  Assorted agencies took down a marijuana-grow operation on Sugarloaf Mountain in July.​As smoke continues to gather over medical-marijuana operations in Colorado, local law-enforcement agencies continue to find weed-growing operations in remote locations -- and Pike National Forest appears to be a favorite. Pot worth an estimated $2.5 million was seized during a Sugarloaf Mountain raid in July; click here to view a slideshow of images from the haul, courtesy of the Jefferson County Sheriff'

  September 14, 2009

• How good fortune graced the namesake of the "Dan Tang Drug Trafficking Organization"

  October 15, 2009

• Deconstructing Colorado's largest indoor pot bust

  As described in this week's feature story, "Tales of the Dragon," prominent Thornton restaurateur Dan Tang has agreed to plead guilty to one count of money laundering for his involvement in a massive marijuana ring -- even though authorities believed Tang had much more involvement than just money laundering in what they'd labeled "the Dan Tang Drug Trafficking Organization." The drug ring was taken down as part of "Operation Fortune Cookie," a thirty-hour-plus dragnet on February 16 and 17, 2

  October 14, 2009

• Wake-Up Call: Talk about the Mile High (and Higher) City!

  ​Even Balloon Boy couldn't knock our hunt for a medical-marijuana reviewer out of the national news. Yesterday, NPR's Sunday show ran a piece about our quest, resulting in still more applications coming in from across the country. But sorry, folks: We're looking for a Colorado resident, someone who can identify not just particular strains, but deal with the state-specific peculiarities of what's rapidly becoming Colorado's s greenest business. The medical marijuana industry is already boo

  October 19, 2009

• Was the Dan Tang Drug Trafficking Organization in cahoots with Colorado dispensaries?

  The grow houses had a lot of pot -- but was it going to dispensaries?​In February 2008, as detailed in the recent Westword stories "Up in Smoke" and "Tales of the Dragon," DEA agents and north metro narcotics detectives uncovered an indoor marijuana ring the likes of which Colorado had never seen. As part of "Operation Fortune Cookie," investigators hauled more than 24,000 high-grade marijuana plants and millions of dollars out of cookie-cutter suburban ranch homes in the largest and possi

  October 20, 2009

• Medical-marijuana advocates fight Mexican drug cartel reports with the Always Buy Colorado Cannabis pledge

  Coming to a medical-marijuana dispensary near you?​Opponents of medical-marijuana laws like Colorado Attorney General John Suthers are increasingly playing the crime card -- implying that the proliferation of dispensaries in Colorado is fueling illegal and increasingly dangerous behavior (without, of course, providing specific examples of the phenomenon). Today's Denver Post adds a chorus to this tune via an article suggesting that demand for ganja has grown so fast that suppliers are havi

  October 21, 2009

• Denver Blogs: James Dobson's minions focus on another state's families

  In the name of J.D., not necessarily J.C.​Our daily homage to local bloggage. Focus on the Family is spreading its hate in Maine. 5280's on the case. Rep. Jared Polis is speaking out against the what he calls a "sweep of terror" being done on illegal immigrants, Colorado Independent reports. At HuffPo Denver, Erin Rosa says the DEA's assertion that drug cartels are getting rich(er) off of medical marijuana is skunky at best.

  October 21, 2009

• Did Fort Collins raid target medical-marijuana?

  View Larger MapWith Colorado Attorney General John Suthers equating the proliferation of medical-marijuana facilities with crime, and other law-enforcers publicly suggesting that dispensaries are selling pot obtained from Mexican drug cartels, the pro-weed crowd has feared a crackdown on growing operations -- and a raid earlier this week at 2206 Suffolk Street in Fort Collins, an area captured in the graphic above (if you have problems seeing the image, click "View Larger Map"), has certainly am

  October 22, 2009

• Operation Coronado and the La Familia bust: The Western Slope is Breaking Bad

  This, my friends, is what three pounds of meth looks like.​I'm a proud native of the Western Slope, and when I grew up in Grand Junction, the main substance we had to worry about was uranium. Those were the days. Now, reports about meth busts are the opposite of unusual -- although few can compare to the feds' roundup of alleged drug thugs operating as the La Familia cartel. Six suspects out of eleven indicted back in July have now been arrested, with three more joining them in lockdown ea

  October 23, 2009

• Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero: It's not every day the feds get a guilty plea from a drug kingpin with his own Wikipedia page

  Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero once sold weed by the ton. Yes, the ton.​Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero, 46, who entered a guilty plea Friday in regard to charges against him in Colorado and Arizona, isn't just any drug peddler. As one of the reputed leaders of Mexico's Sonora cartel, he became the stuff of legend -- and given that he's now admitted to trafficking over 100 tons of marijuana valued at more than $100 million during the second half of the '80s, the tales don't appear to have been exag

  October 26, 2009