Thread: Narcotics task force remains on hold pending investigation

Narcotics task force remains on hold pending investigation
By Sophia Kazmi

Operations at the state-run Central Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team will continue to be suspended until the completion of an audit, an executive board member of the task force said Tuesday.

San Ramon Police Chief Scott Holder, who is a CNET board member, said the audit and inspection will be conducted by a multi-agency team composed of members from the Department of Justice, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office and the San Ramon Police Department.

After the audit is complete, the executive board will determine what to do with the task force, Holder said in an e-mail.

The move comes in the wake of the arrest of the drug task force's leader, Cmdr. Norman Wielsch, and his friend Christopher Butler, who ran a Concord-based private investigation firm, for allegedly conspiring to sell drugs.

Wielsch, 49, of Antioch, and Butler, also 49, of Concord, have been accused of more than two dozen felonies including conspiracy, drug sales, drug transportation and possession. The criminal complaint alleges that on many instances from Nov. 17 to Feb. 15 they sold marijuana, anabolic steroids, methamphetamine, the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and received thousands of dollars in cash for those transactions.

According to Contra Costa County prosecutors, Wielsch admitted he stole seized drugs from the sheriff's evidence room and sold them with the help of his friend, Butler.

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