Posted on 01/27/2008 5:10:38 AM PST by Bulldawg Fan
Three U.S. Army Rangers and another soldier were charged Friday with drug conspiracy after agreeing to an undercover scheme that involved the armed robbery of purported cocaine traffickers.
When three of the men —- Carlos Lopez, 30, Stefan Andre Champagne, 28, and David Ray White, 28, all staff sergeants —- were arrested Thursday, they had an assault rifle, semi-automatic pistols, 15 magazines of ammunition, a TASER, a ski mask and a medic kit. The soldiers, two of whom were armed, were taken by surprise and arrested by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' SWAT team and Sandy Springs police officers.
The other soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Randy Spivey, a 32-year-old Ranger instructor who has been in the Army since October 1997, was arrested Friday.
The four men were stationed at a Ranger training facility, Camp Frank D. Merrill in Dahlonega. Lopez, White and Spivey are Rangers, and Champagne is a medic. The men's hometowns were not available.
If convicted, all four face mandatory minimum 15-year prison sentences —- 10 years for the drug conspiracy plus five more years for the weapons charge.
"It is a sad day when members of one of America's most elite corps of soldiers, the Army Rangers, are alleged to have become involved in criminal activity," said U.S. Attorney David Nahmias. "These men were trained to defend the people and principles of this country, not to use their skills to steal cocaine from drug dealers at gunpoint."
In an affidavit unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, an ATF special agent said the soldiers were targeted after the bureau learned in November there were soldiers who wanted to rob drug traffickers. Central to the arrest was the undercover ATF agent posing as someone who was routinely hired by Mexican cocaine dealers to help them protect their drug houses.
The ATF agent, Brett Turner, first met with Lopez in November. He told Lopez he had become disenchanted with the drug ring when it had refused to front him several kilograms of cocaine. Now, Turner said, he wanted to rob the drug ring of at least 25 kilograms of cocaine and needed help from people the drug dealers did not associate with him, the affidavit said.
Earlier this month, Lopez and Champagne met with Turner and agreed to help him rob Turner's "employer," the affidavit said. "The next step, I explained, was for me to meet everyone who was going to participate, so I could be sure that everything 'checked out' and that everyone was trustworthy," Turner said in his affidavit.
On Jan. 15, all four soldiers met with Turner. Turner discussed plans for the armed robbery and put them on notice they needed to be well-armed, the affidavit said. At least one armed guard named "Oso" would be at the stash house, Turner told the soldiers.
The soldiers, the affidavit said, wanted details: How were they going to get to the drug house? How many armed guards would be there? Where would the cocaine be hidden? Were there any obstacles that might hinder a quick entry into the house?
"Spivey interjected that he was an expert in urban assault and that details about the house and location of the armed personnel were important," Turner wrote in his affidavit.
On Wednesday, Turner called Lopez and told him a shipment of cocaine would arrive on Thursday. Lopez, White and Champagne then went to Buckhead and spent the night in a hotel there, which had been arranged by Turner, the affidavit said.
Shortly after noon on Thursday, Turner met with Lopez, White and Champagne to discuss their plans. At that point, Turner asked why Spivey wasn't there.
Lopez said Spivey was their boss and that the three Rangers could not have taken the day off without Spivey covering for them. "Lopez assured me that Spivey was still part of the team; he was simply playing a different role" and would still get his share of the cocaine, Turner said in the affidavit.
Turner told the men he needed to make a phone call. Within moments, the Rangers had been arrested without incident, the affidavit said.
Scott Sweetow, ATF acting special agent in charge, on Friday called the charges "an isolated incident." But he said the four "are grown men —- all of them non-commissioned officers. They came into it heavily armed and with their eyes wide open."
Monica Managanaro, spokeswoman for Fort Benning, the base and training center for the Rangers, said the Army was cooperating with the investigation.
Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this article.
What were they thinking?????????
That they could be making better money.
They will most likely have plenty of time to think about it. Just wrong and really STOOPID.
“What were they thinking?”
I hate to see any military person screw up. I don’t understand why our govt is targeting them though. Perhaps theres more to the story but shouldn’t all these resources be focused on stopping drugs and not on stopping people who want to hurt the drug dealers.
Shameful, but from the story, I get the whiff of entrapment. Sure seemed like Agent Turner was the instigator. Not that that should excuse the Rangers’ actions.
TC
The US Attorney here loves this type of sting operation and makes a living sponsoring these things.
LLS
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I smelled it too. At the very least I'm sure there was some cajoling and a lot of talk about a "big score" on Agent Turner's part to fire these guys up.
Bad people within a good group it would seem.
It happens in society.
It happens in the military.
This is a case of “a few bad apples”.
The Rangers are top quality!
Actually, these guys wanted to BE drug dealers. They just planned to steal their stock instead of pay for it.
For conspiring to rob fictitious drug dealers? They ought to be charged with posing as DEA agents.
WHERE’S THE FENCE
I guess creating a “gotcha” plot like this, using pretend-drug dealers, pretend-drugs, and pretend-danger is a much easier and politically safer activity for prosecutors than going after actual bad guys who rob and kill people—including law enforcement officers—such as the Mexican crime syndicates operating here.
So what exactly do you think the Rangers thought they were going to do with the large quantity of cocaine they just liberated from the drug dealers?
Or. trying to put some tax free dollars back for them and their families if wounded (maimed for life) on their next rotation into Iraq or Afghanistan, after which, Uncle Sam ignores them completely once off the critical list?
So they did it for their pension plan! Bullsh*t1 These bastards are nothing but two bit criminals, and not very smart ones. They’ve brought disgrace and and embarrassment on the Rangers and the military in general. Would be drug dealers perfectly willing to spread this garbage to our kids and they should spend a good many years in the brig when found guilty.
This is a strange story. Wonder how the government “learned” that those poor old drug traffickers were going to get robbed? Hope the Rangers have darn good lawyers. This could be a very interesting case.
These Rangers are bad guys!
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