Stash house raids crucial to keeping cities safe

Call it the “stash house” tactic — a group of hardened criminals with tough backgrounds are invited to rob a location where dealers keep their drugs. They know it’s a good opportunity because robbing dealers always is — dealers don’t call the cops when they get ripped off. The robbers come armed and ready to kill.

But the whole thing is a trap: Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are waiting, and the team of would-be robber-killers are under arrest.

There’s been a lot of criticism lately in the news media and elsewhere of this kind of operation. Some call it entrapment, and taxpayers should ask questions about the work of law enforcement and be able to expect transparency and accountability.

But I’m here to argue that not only is this law enforcement technique lawful, but it also has taken many violent people off the streets and saved lives. I know because, again and again, I’ve risked my life doing it.

I am a retired ATF special agent with 30 years of law enforcement experience. I have been involved in more than 100 stash house cases across the country, either executing them or reviewing the work of others. Agents involved in these operations put their lives in harm’s way to safeguard communities that have been ravaged by some of the most violent people I have ever encountered.

Defense attorneys say agents created the entire criminal scheme and invited people to commit robbery — in a sense, making an irresistible offer to someone with few other economic opportunities.

The truth? The ATF didn’t create the “scheme.” Stash houses have always been targets. The stash house stings rely upon informants who identify hardened criminals who have already put the word out that they want to continue their criminal careers.

That’s how it was when we executed stash house operations in 2009 in Phoenix, Ariz., which was experiencing a wave of home invasions at drug locations, often with deadly results. In all, we made 70 arrests.

Responding to defense claims that this was entrapment, which she dismissed, U. S. District Court Judge Mary Murguia said: “The government did not invent the concept of robbing a stash house. In a general sense, the criminal enterprise of robbing stash houses was already well underway in Phoenix before the government even began its investigation.”

Is providing an opportunity to commit a crime entrapment when the person eagerly says yes? And agrees to kill the armed stash house guards if necessary? And brings along his own deadly — and illegal — firearm? Gang members even plan to kill the undercover agents making the arrangements (unaware of course, that they are agents).

In 2012, the police chief in Oakland, California, requested ATF’s specialized resources to execute stash house operations after violent crime in Oakland rose that year by 20%.

After four months of a multiagency effort and intense undercover work on the most violent offenders, robbery crews and criminal organizations working the streets of Oakland, shootings were cut in half.

“This operation has had a significant impact in reducing gun violence in Oakland, and shows our community the level of cooperation and support that we will continue to receive from our federal law enforcement partners and the U. S. attorney’s office,” Oakland Chief Howard Jordan said.

In 2013, we took our specialized resources to St. Louis. Although the stash house cases

Stash houses have always been targets. The stash house stings rely upon informants who identify hardened criminals who have already put the word out that they want to continue their criminal careers.

continued to receive intense scrutiny by the courts, law enforcement and communities in St. Louis realized the benefits of these operations.

In four months, more than 50 operations were undertaken that resulted in federal charges against 159 defendants and 267 guns seized. Of those 267 guns, some were traced to other crimes. Of those charged, 78% were convicted felons who had amassed more than 500 previous convictions among them.

We, along with our law enforcement partners and private citizens, know from personal experience that taking violent offenders off the streets prevents violent crime and saves lives. It also gives citizens respite from those who ravage their communities. To me, that is an end that justifies the means.