Pubdate: Thu, 08 Apr 1999 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html Page: 19A Author: Mark Smith Believing they were being interviewed by academics studying gang activity, members of a Freeport gang revealed plans to blow up police headquarters and an officer's house with stolen explosives, a federal agent testified Wednesday. The purported college professors and graduate students who gained the trust of the "Vatos Locos" -- Spanish slang for "crazy guys" -- turned out to be undercover agents who secretly recorded the gang members as they proudly discussed their activities, authorities said. "They bought it hook, line and sinker," Freeport Police Chief Evelyn H. Gonzalez said of the ruse by Drug Enforcement Administration agents. The plot to use stolen plastic explosives from Fort Hood was discussed in testimony by DEA Special Agent Wendell Campbell during a federal arraignment hearing for David Rangel, 21, the alleged head of the Vatos Locos. Rangel and 11 other gang members or relatives have been indicted on various drug-trafficking offenses in connection with the sale of crack cocaine. He is charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine and employing a minor to distribute cocaine. The Vatos Locos planned to drill a hole in a wall at police headquarters, plant some C-4 plastic explosive and detonate it by shooting it from a distance, Campbell testified in a Houston federal court. He said the gang, which has 40 to 50 members, also schemed to use the explosives on the home of a Freeport officer and against rival gangs. Although they had obtained about 4.5 pounds of the explosive -- an amount that police compared to a 500-pound bomb -- the gang members apparently did not have a detonator. Campbell said it was highly unlikely the material could be set off by shooting it. Authorities first learned that the gang had obtained plastic explosives after they were found in a junk car in Clute in January 1998. The owner of the car called police after finding the material in a duffel bag in the car. After tracing serial numbers on the explosives, Campbell said, federal agents and military authorities determined that they had been stolen from a military stockpile at Fort Hood, an Army base in Central Texas. Federal authorities destroyed the explosives and the FBI is still investigating the theft, Campbell said. Gonzalez, the Freeport chief, said that even though the gang didn't have a detonator to make the explosives lethal, police took their threats seriously and asked federal authorities to join the investigation. "I believe if (the gang) had all the right devices to get this done, I think they would have made an attempt," she said. She declined to name the officers the gang members targeted, but said they also spoke of blowing up a local bank. In Wednesday's hearing, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Calvin Botley, Rangel, wearing shorts, sandals and a torn gray T- shirt, pleaded not guilty. His court-appointed attorney, Marjorie Meyers, declined comment after the hearing. Botley ordered Rangel jailed without bond, saying that Rangel has a "continuous history" of criminal activity and might attempt to flee if he were released on bond. Botley cited a list of Rangel's prior arrests on charges including harassment, retaliation and terroristic threats, manufacture and distribution of cocaine, theft of services, auto theft, aggravated assault with a firearm and delivery of a controlled substance. Rangel also is unemployed, unmarried and allegedly conducted the leadership of the gang from his mother's Freeport home, Botley said. During the hearing, Campbell and Assistant U.S. Attorney Claude Hippard said Rangel and the Vatos Locos had attempted to distribute more than 50 grams of crack cocaine. DEA agents have been helping to investigate the gang since 1997, when Freeport police sought their aid, Campbell said. Damaging evidence was gained last August and September, during interviews when federal agents posed as out-of-state university professors and graduate students researching the gang's activities, Campbell said. In several days of interviews that were secretly audio- and videotaped, he testified, gang members identified Rangel as their leader and described initiations known as "click ins' or "kick ins," in which members were beaten and given bags of crack cocaine to sell. Campbell said the members range in age from 15 to 25. Gonzalez said the gang members were eager to talk about their exploits for what they thought would be an academic survery. "Most of these gang members are pretty proud of themselves," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea