Undercover Drug Officer Tells His Side of Story

UNDERCOVER DRUG OFFICER TELLS HIS SIDE OF STORY

The undercover police officer whose work was instrumental in the Aug.  10 arrests of 14 adults and 8 juveniles charged with dealing drugs is stepping out of his disguise.

Officer Wayne Thomas, a 2005 graduate of Pardeeville High School, was studying criminal justice at Madison Area Technical College in Madison when the Wisconsin Dells Police Department recruited him for the undercover work.

'We just interviewed him and talked to him and thought that he was young enough," said Wisconsin Dells Police Chief Bret Anderson.

He was athletic, young, and the department believed he would fit in well with the subjects of the investigation, Anderson added.

Thomas had volunteered with the department before in the Wisconsin Dells Police Explorers program.  He gained more experience by holding a 200-hour internship with the Columbia County Sheriff's Department and was a village of Cambria patrol officer before taking on the persona of a young adult seeking to buy drugs in Wisconsin Dells for friends in Milwaukee and Chicago.

He gave himself the nickname of "Ace."

He first went undercover in May and spent a lot of time hanging around Bowman Park, where he met many of the individuals he would later purchase drugs from.

"I pretty much just had to go infiltrate their groups and see what I could get into I guess.  Anything illegal that I could get into I was trying to get myself into with them," he said.

He observed burglaries, and the exchange of various drugs like marijuana, different forms of cocaine, Ecstacy and heroine.  He attended underage drinking parties and became privy to incidents of vandalism, he said.  Common gang symbols he saw in graffiti included a three-pronged pitch fork and upside down crown.

He tried to assume the character of a drug user.  To fit in with the crowd he had to become well versed in street gang terms.  A quarter of a pound of drugs would be referred to as a "QP" and an eighth of an ounce of drugs was called a "dime bag" and sold for $50, said Thomas, who witnessed 50 different drug exchanges in the four-month investigation.

Thomas purchased quarter ounces of marijuana and once he bought six to eight pills of Ecstacy.  The Ecstacy pills were valued at $20 each.  And one gram of cocaine would sell for $60, he said.

It takes a special individual to be an undercover agent, he said.  An undercover officer has to be confident and aware, but not worried, he said.

"At all times I was always cautious.  At any time they ( the drug dealing suspects ) could be tipped off by somebody.  You don't want to put yourself in a position where you could possibly be physically hurt," he said.

"People would kill to stay out of ( prison )," he said.

Thomas was equipped with a hand gun at times.  Sometimes he would be wired and police would assemble a video system in attempts to capture drug dealings on tape.

Thomas said the number of individuals implicated by the investigation extends beyond the 22 who were arrested on Aug.  10.

Now the police know to associate certain individuals with illegal drugs and underage drinking.

"At every party that I went to I would get people's names, one way or another.  We'd go through their yearbooks at the schools.  Whether it was the Dells, Baraboo, it didn't matter where, and they're now on file," Thomas said.

Thomas said he weakened the resolve of drug users.

"I truly believe I helped out everyone who lives in Wisconsin Dells," he said.

Drug dealers will be less likely to trust the people they sell drugs to.  Some might not ever sell or use drugs again, he said.

"I just went in there and just destroyed their world," he said.

Thomas was involved in putting handcuffs on the very individuals he strived to befriend during the investigation, but he doesn't feel guilty for having deceived them.

"I don't really feel that bad, honestly.  I look at it like, 'Don't do the crime if you can't do the time,'" he said.

Thomas will work for the Wisconsin Dells Police Department through Sept.  17.  He is on track to graduate from MATC with an associate degree in criminal justice in the winter or spring.  He said he might return to work for the Wisconsin Dells Police Department while he pursues a bachelor's degree in criminal justice at UW-Platteville or UW-Whitewater.

Ultimately, Thomas said he would like to work for the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration.  He anticipates working undercover again, but not in Wisconsin Dells.

"The cat is out of the bag," Anderson said. 

US WI Undercover Drug Officer Tells His Side of Story

Wayne "Ace" Thomas Senior Pardeeville H.S. football picture.	Wayne "Ace" Thomas Senior Pardeeville H.S. baseball picture.