Crystal Meth Kid

Ronin dubbed this one the Crystal Meth Kid, 'cause that's what he uses and sells. And when I say "sells" I don't mean "hooks up his friends sometimes when they're getting low." He had a ton of it on him when we searched him. And probably plenty more in his car, but that's not our concern.

This guy's been a thorn in our side for almost two months. We spent a lot of surveillance time at his girlfriend's family's house waiting for her to show up, and she never did (while we were there). We talked to his family, her family, old friends, current friends, and got very little useful out of any of them. We canvassed hotels and liquor stores all over the area he was known to be, and that appeared about to bear fruit, when a liquor store owner on Colorado Boulevard told me he'd been seen outside "just hanging around" (waiting for his customers) several times in the past couple weeks. But a few days ago we also learned he'd told his family that he'd rather go out "suicide by cop" than go back to jail. So we let his girlfriend's family know that, and explained that that put her in danger just for being with him, and like magic, two days later an informant called and told us:

• where he was staying,
• who was with him (the girlfriend and two gangbangers),
• what he was driving, and
• what they were driving,

which intelligence we utilized immediately. There was another bounty hunter looking for him for a different bondsman, who met us there. We (Ronin, Fox, King, and I) were all tac'd out, so the other guy went into the hotel to see, if they'd used a real name, what room they were in. Before he got that information, our boy and his girlfriend walked out of the room and started to get into their car. We later learned that they were leaving that hotel for another one just to try to stay ahead of us. Too late!

After all his trash talk about "suicide by cop," he wasn't even armed. And his homies (if they were there), never came out.The rest is pretty standard stuff. Roll up, cuff 'im, stuff 'im, roll to IRC, wait, wait, wait....

This is the kind of file that really feels great to close. After so much work and so much time, it's a great relief to be done with it and not have to think about him any more. And one last thing that made it feel good: This was a different bondsman from our usual, and he paid, in cash, the agreed amount, before we even finished the surrender.