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The Agent Wore Madras

When the FBI needed to search an employee's PC for gang-related activity, the CSO was in for a few surprises?

September 01, 2006 — CSO — In the mid-1990s, the sounds of gunshots were all too familiar throughout the Northeast. From Brooklyn, N.Y., to Rutland, Vt., hundreds of young people, almost all of them males in their late teens, lost their lives as street gangs battled over turf. The gangs insisted that their organizations were mere social clubs, but people knew better. Crack cocaine was big business, city blocks were sales territories, and the 9 millimeter handgun was the chief negotiator.

The citizenry grew weary of the rising death toll and called for action. In response, a joint task force of local, state and federal agencies was formed. The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Drug Enforcement Administration worked side by side with state and local police to gather intelligence, understand the inner workings of the gangs and identify their leaders. The ultimate goal was to break up the gangs and end the violence plaguing the streets.

Armed with knowledge of their habits, hideouts and leadership, the task force went to work.

Houses and apartments were raided, and gangsters were hauled away and put to trial. Once convicted, the gangsters were sent to different prisons around the country in an effort to hamper gang communication.

A task force member who had managed to infiltrate one gang discovered that one of its leaders was producing and distributing gang propaganda with the use of a personal computer. During a predawn raid, the task force stormed the apartment of this tech-savvy gangster and seized the PC as evidence. When the computer was analyzed, a property tag identified the computer as belonging to the company where I was CSO. When the gangster was interrogated, he acknowledged that a relative of his held a job at my company. The PC was a loaner that enabled that person to work from home. Based on this information, the task force contacted my company through the U.S. Attorney's office. Our company lawyers were directed to secure any computer equipment used by the alleged gangster's relative and to await further instruction. That's when I got a call.

I was summoned to an office where I was met by our corporate attorneys, who briefly explained to me that our company had been instructed to hold a particular PC and wait for the FBI to come in and look at it. Accompanied by a couple of our security guards, I dutifully went off down the hall to locate the PC. The office was vacant, and we gathered the PC and associated diskettes without incident.