![]() During the case, an active duty army captain at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal sold undercover agents 10 cases of plastic explosives and government checks totaling $75,000. In Operation Den Mother, 25 federal and local arrests were made and $300,000 was recovered. Major theft was another concern for the division, as demonstrated in two major cases in the late 1970s. Lentz was killed, and the hostages were unharmed. One Denver agent suddenly yelled, “Do you want us to close the cabin door?” surprising the gunman who turned his head, diverting his attention from his hostage and giving agents a chance to shoot him. They hid on board and waited as Lentz arrived, holding a gun to a hostage’s head. When attempted negotiations broke down, Denver agents-working with the Colorado governor and the Federal Aviation Administration-got access to the transfer aircraft that Lentz demanded. He shot at Denver agents several times from the plane. Lentz commandeered the plane to Stapleton International Airport in Denver and demanded to be flown to Mexico. ![]() Lentz’ brother characterized him as suicidal and homicidal. Armed with a shotgun and revolver, Lentz hijacked a small aircraft in Nebraska and seized two hostages. He began drinking heavily and argued violently with his wife. In 1976, a man named Roger Lyle Lentz was fired from his job. Lone criminals could be serious threats, too. Denver personnel assisted other divisions in bringing a successful closure to their 71-day siege. A couple weeks later, 200 AIM members seized a church and trading post in Wounded Knee, South Dakota. In 1973, for example, five sticks of dynamite were sent to AIM members in South Dakota Denver agents helped identify the procurers and transporters of the explosives and recover the explosives. The office teamed with other divisions and law enforcement during 1970s to investigate the criminal acts of a group known as the American Indian Movement (AIM). The subsequent prosecutions were successful due to the quality of the division’s work breaking the illegal multi-million dollar sports bookmaking enterprise.įBI Denver also faced challenges in dealing with the threat from violent revolutionaries of the day. The next year, acting boss Clarence Smaldone, other family members, and various associates were convicted of interstate gambling charges in related investigations. The family’s “boss,” Eugene Smaldone, was convicted and imprisoned in 1974 following FBI investigation. The Denver Division also investigated a Colorado Mafia family during the 1970s. By the time of their capture, agents in other offices had caught all but one of the 10 fugitives. When arrested, Akers had a knife with a four-inch blade beside his bed, and Hinckley had a loaded. The agents were especially wary, as Akers was known to keep hand grenades on his person and in his car and to rig his automobile with dynamite to explode if apprehended. Agents tracked them to a Boulder motel where they were sleeping. Denver received a lead that the two fugitive Pagans, using aliases, had rented a car with Colorado license plates. They were among the 10 gang members who had been indicted in Virginia for murder, abduction, and conspiracy related to the torture murders of two Satan’s Saints gang members. In 1960, it helped identify the man who kidnapped and murdered Adolph Coors, III, heir to the Coors Brewing Company fortune. During a nationwide search, Denver agents also caught Francis Alexander Akers and Bradley Hinckley, two dangerous Pagan motorcycle gang members in early 1970. The division pursued other violent criminals. The division also handled several cases involving aircraft, including search-and-rescues in the mountainous terrain, air piracy, and sabotage. National security had become the top priority as Europe went to war and America prepared for the worst.ĭuring World War II and the years following, the Denver office investigated bank robberies, national security matters, and Selective Service Act violations. Two years after that, the caseload had almost quadrupled. 1940s and 1950sīy 1939, 11 agents were assigned to Denver, handling 289 pending investigations in the states of Colorado and Wyoming. The office closed temporarily in 1931, but it reopened in 1935 under the leadership of R.D. Like most offices in the early years, the division investigated federal crimes such as peonage (forced labor) and the theft of interstate shipments. Samson was serving as special agent in charge. The Bureau has had an office in Denver since its earliest days.
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