St. George • David Cole took an oath to protect and serve, working for 23 years in law enforcement. But beginning in 2021, prosecutors say, Cole was one of two Homeland Security agents working out of Salt Lake City who sold illegal drugs they were tasked with taking off the streets.
They began stealing bath salts from their agency and others, telling colleagues they needed the stimulant, which can have hallucinogenic properties, for investigative work.
As Cole, 50, awaited sentencing in a federal court room in St. George Wednesday, his attorney argued that the former agent had already suffered the loss of a 23-year law enforcement career, become a felon and logged considerable jail time in solitary confinement.
“While his status as a federal agent makes the circumstances worse, it doesn’t embrace the 23 years of great work he did,” defense attorney Jamie Thomas told the judge.
But prosecutor Blake Ellison said the agents’ sales, which netted them more than $300,000, were not a temporary lapse in judgment.
“This was a years-long scheme that involved the repeated theft and sale of drugs on the black market,” Ellison said, calling Cole’s actions a violation of the public trust that undermined law enforcement and resulted in some of the cases the agent worked on being dropped.
U.S. District Court Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen acknowledged Cole’s years of service, but said that they did not offset the magnitude of the crimes he committed.
“I’m sure he wishes every moment he could take this back to the beginning and make decisions that did not lead here,” Allen said. “I wish we could turn back the clock. But the court is not able to remove accountability and is not able to remove consequences.”
Cole’s attorney had argued for a prison term lower than the sentencing guidelines of 70 to 87 months.
Allen sentenced Cole to the full 87 months in federal prison for his role in the scheme.
Cole expressed remorse for his actions during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.
“I want to make it clear that I take full responsibility for my actions … and want everyone to know how sorry I am,” said Cole, whose guilty plea was proffered in exchange for a possible reduction in sentence.
Cole attributed some of his downfall to relationship issues and called the last eight months he has been in the county jail a blessing because it has helped him reset, make changes and reminded him of how much his family loved him.
In asking for leniency, the defense included an impassioned plea from Cole’s 22-year-old son, who read the letter that he sent to the judge, calling his father a hero.
According to court records, Cole and Nicholas Kindle began stealing bath salts from Homeland Security and other agencies, informing colleagues they needed the stimulant for investigative reasons.
Instead, prosecutors say the two were sporadically selling the synthetic bath salts to a Homeland Security confidential source to resell and keep the profit.
Cole and Kindle compelled the confidential informant to pay them $5,000 for each transaction, which he could then resell to dealers for an estimated $10,000 and keep the difference, according to court documents. The illicit deals happened alongside legitimate drug-buy operations conducted by Homeland Security agents.
To avoid detection, Cole and Kindle used the encrypted messaging app Signal to communicate with their informant and direct him where and when to meet to exchange drugs for cash. One of the agents would then meet the informant at a variety of locations, including Shake Shack, Panera Bread, a Smith’s Food and Drug, Harmons Grocery or a Nike store, the documents state.
Last year, between April and December, court records state, Cole and Kindle pocketed at least $195,000 from their illegal drug sales to their confidential informant. Prosecutors further allege Cole and Kindle stole thousands of dollars in cash, a diamond ring and a Peruvian antiquity from the evidence room.
During the bath salts operations, the informant later told investigators, neither of the agents arrested anyone who purchased the drugs he sold nor gave him any recording devices or video equipment to gather evidence on the buyers, according to court records.
Concerned that Cole and Kindle were requiring him to engage in illegal activities, the complaint states, the informant met with FBI investigators last fall to report the illegal sales.
With the informant’s help, the FBI secured proof of multiple illegal buys with the two agents, court records state. Last December, agents executed search warrants on Cole and Kindle’s residences, their government vehicles and phones, and a safety deposit box, seizing what “appeared to be bath salts, more than $67,000 in cash, and other evidence,” the documents state.
Kindle, who also has agreed to plead guilty, is slated to be sentenced on Oct. 22.