Shoot-up blamed on rogue mole

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 5, 2009 | by LANCE BENZEL

An FBI drug probe spun wildly out of control in Colorado Springs last February when a federal informant went off-script and shot up a home belonging to one of the investigation's chief targets, documents show.

The FBI mole - a felon and reputed gang member named Robert "Payaso" Rodarte - was paid to set up a Feb. 14 meeting with suspected players in a gang-related drug ring while wearing a hidden recorder for federal investigators.

Afterward, authorities allege, Rodarte and four accomplices used the occasion to seek vengeance against street rivals.

According to court documents, Rodarte's hidden recorder was on and captured the sound of bullets spraying into a home in the 700 block of East Cucharras Street. Seven people were inside, including three young children. A woman and her 4-year-old son were nearly wounded.

"It was supposed to be a Valentine's Day massacre," said Diane Baltazar, who said that she and the other occupants of the home gathered up children and scrambled for cover after one bullet pierced her adult daughter's pant leg and another passed within inches of the boy.

The investigation was spearheaded by the FBI Safe Streets Gang Task Force, a multiagency unit that includes members of the Colorado Springs police.

Police spokesman Lt. David Whitlock declined to comment, saying the shooting was part of an ongoing probe, and he referred questions to the FBI. An agency spokeswoman, Special Agent Kathy Wright, did not return a phone message.

The FBI investigation that spawned the rogue informant appears to be the same effort that eventually led to the October arrests of 16 people suspected in a drug ring tied to the La Familia street gang, a local cell of the Surenos.

The FBI said it quickly ended its relationship with the 44-year- old Rodarte and arrested all five men.

The other suspects were identified as 35-year-old James Edward "Puppet" Cisneros; 24-year-old Jose Lorenzo "Joey" Salazar; 30-year- old Frankie Orlando Salazar; and 35-year-old Richard "Richie" Dydell. They were booked into El Paso County jail on suspicion of attempted murder.

The five wanted to avenge a daring robbery in which three men beat up Salazar in the parking lot of the The Bean Bandit restaurant on North Circle Drive and took $30,000 worth of drugs, court documents said. They blamed Jorge "Wicked" Perez, reputedly a rival- gang member and the target of the FBI's undercover drug operation, court records said.

Perez wasn't home on the night of the Feb. 14 shooting, but his girlfriend and children were.

Rodarte was recruited as an informant by a police detective assigned to the task force, and had been used in several earlier investigations, an arrest affidavit said.

Family members of Perez say the shooting wasn't the first time they ended up in law enforcement's cross hairs.

In an Oct. 6 raid tied to that probe, a police and federal SWAT team raided a Colorado Springs home in search of drugs and instead found Rose Ann Santistevan, Baltazar's disabled mother, lying alone in bed with her oxygen tank. The 69-year-old suffered a heart attack and was taken to Memorial Hospital in critical condition, authorities confirmed. She was eventually released, though her family said her health has been frail since the episode.

Several other members of the family were arrested Oct. 6 on suspicion of gang-related drug activity, but Diane Baltazar said she believes they are innocent of all charges.