When Drug Task Force Members Go Rogue (2024)

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Task Force led the investigation that underpins the Government’s case in the big Aryan Brotherhood RICO Trial in Sacramento. Ronnie Yandell’s legal team has spent a considerable amount of time and effort alleging malfeasance by DEA Case Agent Brian Nehring.

So far, it’s been the Donut Discrepancy, making a false statement in a sworn affidavit, and inaccurately describing who participated in a police interview. A lot of smoke and not a lot of fire at this point.

With the DEA Task Force under the microscope, it’s worth revisiting two Contra Costa County drug task forces that had rogue actors with badges among their ranks.

WESTNET, which was comprised of federal, state, and local police agencies, zeroed in on Jose and Sergio Vega-Robles, two brothers from Sinaloa with cartel connections. The Vega-Robles Brothers had moved to Richmond in the 1990s and were moving major weight in the early 2000s. The duo were supplying Sureno street gangs and the Family Affiliated Irish Mafia (FAIM) with cocaine and crystal methamphetamine.

Sergio Vega-Robles worked as DEA informant circa 2004. His handler was Michael Wang of the Richmond Police, who was assigned to WESTNET. The DEA ultimately dropped Sergio as an informant in late 2004 because he wasn’t providing actionable information. Sergio was arrested in late 2005, while his older brother Jose fled to Mexico and was ultimately arrested in 2007.

Years later, Sergio would claim he had bribed Wang with more than $120,000 in cash payments. In exchange, Sergio and Jose got a free pass to sell drugs in Richmond. Sergio told one story of how he and Wang drove to Elk Grove to buy ephedrine from a dealer named Peanut, who also “worked” with the cop.

In February 2005, Jose shot a suspected police informant after being tipped off that he was going to be set up. Curiously, a lot of the information from the Richmond Police case file about the informant shooting disappeared, causing many to suspect Wang had engaged in a coverup. The City of Richmond ultimately paid the shooting victim $700,000.

Wang was placed on administrative leave in 2012 and terminated in 2014. He was not prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired for the alleged crimes he committed in 2004 and 2005. Wang was called as a defense witness in the 2016 trial of alleged FAIM co-founder Coby Phillips and asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

Central Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team (CCCNET)

CCCNET was led by Norman Wielsch of the Antioch Police Department. Wielsch was friends with Chris Butler, a former Antioch cop turned private investigator (PI). Butler operated a Concord-based PI agency and one of his employees was Carl Marino, a former deputy sheriff from New York and an aspiring actor.

Circa 2010, Butler was pursuing a reality TV show called “P.I. Moms.” Butler had recruited several East Bay soccer moms to conduct undercover surveillance on suspected cheating husbands. In September 2010, Butler and Marino participated in an elaborate staged PI Mom surveillance operation that was witnessed by a local magazine writer for publicity purposes1. (Except they didn’t tell the writer the part about it being fake). In Fall 2010, filming had begun for “PI Moms.” Marino had been promised a part on the show but was cut out. And this decision would prove to be the beginning of the end for Butler.

Butler also worked for Mary Nolan, a San Ramon divorce attorney. Butler and Nolan had devised a scheme where the soon-to-be ex-husbands of her clients would be lured into a honey trap and set up for a DUI. An attractive young woman would connect with the target on Facebook. The two would go out on a date with a promise of a “Hot Tub Party” at the end of the evening. At the dinner stop, the female decoy would get the target intoxicated. Meanwhile, Butler would be clandestinely watching the target get into his vehicle and then tip off the local police about a drunk driver. The men would be pulled over and arrested. The DUI would negatively impact the ongoing divorce proceedings and be used as leverage for child custody.

At least three men were victims of this scheme in 2010 and early 2011. Marino participated in one of the Dirty DUIs in January 2011 when he posed as a Diablo Magazine writer who interviewed a local businessman at a Danville wine bar. Around the same time, Marino was working a police informant telling on Butler.

Butler also had a hustle where Wielsch would supply him with confiscated drugs that were scheduled to be destroyed and he would attempt to resell them. The drugs included cannabis, crystal meth, and anabolic steroids. Marino was one of the persons recruited to sell seized drugs, although he would later claim he was unsuccessful at selling product.

If that wasn’t enough criminal activity, Butler ran a brothel in Pleasant Hill that posed as a massage parlor. Wielsch provided protection for it.

The Dirty DUIs were exposed in February 2011 with the arrests of Butler, Wielsch, and Nolan. Marino received immunity and testified against them. Wielsch was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. Butler was sentenced to 8 years. Nolan, the lawyer, was sentenced to 2 years and was disbarred.

Later in 2011, Marino, the informant, landed the role of Lt. Joe Kenda on the Investigation Discovery show “Homicide Hunter.” The show ran until 2019 and was the highest rated show on the network. Carl Marino finally got his big break.