Setting: Tattoo parlor. Operation: Drug, firearm sting

By Jeff German

Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Tucked away in a small business center in the shadow of the Strip, the Hustler Tattoo shop seemed to attract more than its share of colorful figures until it abruptly shut its doors in May.

Just down the street from a topless club, the storefront at 2640 Highland Drive was a place where patrons could not only get a tattoo or a body piercing, but play pool and party. There was always plenty of beer in the refrigerator and neighbors reported seeing numerous pizza boxes outside in the trash.

But the real action at Hustler Tattoo took place in the back room, where operators Peter McCarthy and Mark Gomez ran a side business that catered to a different clientele — drug traffickers, gang members and an assortment of ex-cons with violent histories.

The duo had put out the word that if you wanted to sell methamphetamine or cocaine, or assault rifles or any other kind of illegal weapon, you could find the right deal in Hustler’s back room.

What the sellers didn’t know was that McCarthy and Gomez were undercover agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Hustler Tattoo had become the epicenter of a 15-month undercover sting, dubbed Operation Sin City Ink, aimed at taking some of the valley’s most violent criminals off the street.

On the surface, the back room played the part. It was modestly equipped with a computer sitting on top of a small desk, a royal blue futon set up against a wall emblazoned with a large caricature of a bad guy holding a smoking gun and, behind the desk, a rectangular two-way mirror that allowed McCarthy and Gomez to peer undetected into the tattoo shop.

The room also was wired to the hilt with hidden video cameras and audio recorders to chronicle the undercover transactions. Because some of the suspects frequenting the storefront were considered violent, the ATF often kept a special team of agents nearby if needed.

According to court documents, Operation Sin City Ink shut down May 15 after ATF agents, with the help of Metro Police and other law enforcement agencies, arrested two groups of suspects, 10 in all, who’d thought they were about to participate in armed robberies of homes stashing large amounts of cocaine brought in from Mexico. In one of the ATF-staged home invasions, the suspects had thought they were going to have to kill people, including an undercover agent posing as a Mexican drug cartel courier.

Since then, documents show that at least 15 suspects have been indicted on federal drug and weapons charges in eight separate criminal cases, and at least 10 defendants are facing similar charges in Las Vegas Justice Court. Additional indictments reportedly either have been filed under seal or are expected to be returned soon.

But as the cases move through the court system, the ATF is starting to feel the sting of its own operation.

Prosecutors turned over dozens of audio- and videotapes to defense attorneys of the undercover agents in action, and some of those tapes, the lawyers say, show that McCarthy might have been doing too good a job of playing his role.

In recently filed court papers, attorneys Shari Kaufman, Lisa Rasmussen and Natalie Smoot allege that McCarthy was doing drugs while alone in the back room of Hustler Tattoo. On several tapes, McCarthy, a seasoned agent who sported a goatee, was observed smoking what appeared to be methamphetamine and marijuana and snorting a white substance on his desk with a rolled-up dollar bill, they charged.

One tape, the attorneys claimed, shows the younger, ponytailed Gomez telling McCarthy that he “really needs to stop smoking that (expletive).”

Nina Delgadillo, a San Francisco-based ATF agent who serves as the agency’s western regional spokeswoman, would not discuss the allegations other than to say they are “false” and that the ATF supports McCarthy.

In their court papers, the defense attorneys said federal prosecutors told them the substances McCarthy was observed smoking were “fake” and that he actually was snorting aspirin.

The defense attorneys, however, say they don’t buy that explanation for numerous reasons, not the least of which is that no suspects were in the room with McCarthy when he committed those acts.

They contend it is “inappropriate” for ATF agents to be using drugs while negotiating undercover drug sales.

“Even more inappropriate is the possibility that the agents are negotiating firearm transactions and handling firearms while under the influence of narcotics,” they wrote.

U.S. Magistrate George Foley Jr. has been asked to delve into the allegations at a hearing at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Delgadillo declined to comment further on the undercover operation, saying the agency was prohibited from discussing it because of the ongoing criminal cases.

But court documents and ATF investigative reports show the undercover operation was an ambitious undertaking that started out targeting violent Hispanic street gangs with roots in Mexico, Texas and Southern California.

According to one investigative report, Gomez and a police intelligence specialist at the Clark County Detention Center quietly began recruiting inmates tied to Hispanic gangs in February 2007, offering them reduced prison time for their help.

By Feb. 14, 2007, three inmates had agreed to serve as confidential informants, Gomez reported. They were willing to set up purchases of firearms and narcotics from identified targets and had agreed to introduce undercover agents to potential targets, wear recording devices and testify in court, Gomez wrote. The informants were scheduled to be released from the jail the week of Feb. 19 and the undercover operation was expected to start the following week, Gomez noted.

Once it was up and running, McCarthy and Gomez had little trouble attracting business. ATF reports show that a steady stream of aspiring scammers and ex-cons made their way to Hustler Tattoo with hopes of tapping into its illicit bankroll.

McCarthy and Gomez hit the jackpot weeks into the operation, the reports show, when they encountered Christopher Sangalang, a 33-year-old reputed gang associate who, authorities say, sold them a firearm in an undercover deal. Sangalang, who portrayed himself as a tough-talking cocaine trafficker always looking for a big score, reportedly ended up working as a tattoo artist at the shop.

By April of this year, agents were comfortable enough at the storefront to pull off a more complicated sting, and they found the right target in another reputed gang associate, Alfredo Flores. After allegedly buying 2 ounces of methamphetamine from Flores, court documents show, McCarthy and Gomez introduced him to another undercover agent posing as a disgruntled courier for a Mexican cocaine trafficking operation. That agent told Flores he was looking for a crew to rob the cartel’s heavily armed local stash house of 60 to 80 kilograms of cocaine.

Flores took the bait, telling agents that he had associates who could “hit them hard,” according to a criminal complaint later filed in the case.

The next day agents approached Sangalang about participating in the armed robbery. Sangalang indicated he could reach out to a crew of “killers” who had performed home invasions in the past, authorities say.

About the same time, agents came up with a second cocaine robbery plot.

Using a second undercover agent posing as a drug courier, they approached Donte Reed, another tough talker who had bragged to a confidential informant earlier in the year about being part of a home invasion crew in Las Vegas, authorities say.

Reed offered to get a crew to participate in the robbery of a home he thought was stashing “22 to 39” kilograms of cocaine, according to court documents.

A week later, Sangalang and Flores agreed to bring in people from Los Angeles to perform the other stash-house robbery; Sangalang told agents he wanted to kill everyone in the house and make it look like a “drug deal gone bad,” authorities say.

Later, at McCarthy’s request, Sangalang also allegedly agreed to kill the undercover agent posing as the courier.

On the evening of May 14, court documents show, agents met in the back room of Hustler Tattoo with Sangalang, Flores and members of their crews to make final preparations for the robbery. Earlier in the day, agents had met with Reed and members of his crew in the parking lot of the Ice House restaurant on South Main Street to go over plans for the other staged home invasion.

May 15 turned out to be a busy day for agents.

By 2:30 p.m., Sangalang, Flores and their associates had assembled at the tattoo shop ready to carry out what they thought would be a shoot ’em-up robbery.

But after they drove with undercover agents to what they thought was the site of the crime, they were arrested by a swarm of other federal agents and law enforcement officers.

A few hours later, about 5:30 p.m., agents repeated that performance, taking Reed and his associates into custody a half-mile from the Ice House.

It was an action-packed ending for Operation Sin City Ink — and Hustler Tattoo.