UNDERCOVER DRUG OFFICER TELLS HIS SIDE OF STORY

The undercover police officer whose work was instrumental in the Aug.
10 arrests of 14 adults and 8 juveniles charged with dealing drugs is
stepping out of his disguise.

Officer Wayne Thomas, a 2005 graduate of Pardeeville High School, was
studying criminal justice at Madison Area Technical College in Madison
when the Wisconsin Dells Police Department recruited him for the
undercover work.

'We just interviewed him and talked to him and thought that he was
young enough," said Wisconsin Dells Police Chief Bret Anderson.

He was athletic, young, and the department believed he would fit in
well with the subjects of the investigation, Anderson added.

Thomas had volunteered with the department before in the Wisconsin
Dells Police Explorers program. He gained more experience by holding a
200-hour internship with the Columbia County Sheriff's Department and
was a village of Cambria patrol officer before taking on the persona
of a young adult seeking to buy drugs in Wisconsin Dells for friends
in Milwaukee and Chicago.

He gave himself the nickname of "Ace."

He first went undercover in May and spent a lot of time hanging around
Bowman Park, where he met many of the individuals he would later
purchase drugs from.

"I pretty much just had to go infiltrate their groups and see what I
could get into I guess. Anything illegal that I could get into I was
trying to get myself into with them," he said.

He observed burglaries, and the exchange of various drugs like
marijuana, different forms of cocaine, Ecstacy and heroine. He
attended underage drinking parties and became privy to incidents of
vandalism, he said. Common gang symbols he saw in graffiti included a
three-pronged pitch fork and upside down crown.

He tried to assume the character of a drug user. To fit in with the
crowd he had to become well versed in street gang terms. A quarter of
a pound of drugs would be referred to as a "QP" and an eighth of an
ounce of drugs was called a "dime bag" and sold for $50, said Thomas,
who witnessed 50 different drug exchanges in the four-month
investigation.

Thomas purchased quarter ounces of marijuana and once he bought six to
eight pills of Ecstacy. The Ecstacy pills were valued at $20 each. And
one gram of cocaine would sell for $60, he said.

It takes a special individual to be an undercover agent, he said. An
undercover officer has to be confident and aware, but not worried, he
said.

"At all times I was always cautious. At any time they (the drug
dealing suspects) could be tipped off by somebody. You don't want to
put yourself in a position where you could possibly be physically
hurt," he said.

"People would kill to stay out of (prison)," he said.

Thomas was equipped with a hand gun at times. Sometimes he would be
wired and police would assemble a video system in attempts to capture
drug dealings on tape.

Thomas said the number of individuals implicated by the investigation
extends beyond the 22 who were arrested on Aug. 10.

Now the police know to associate certain individuals with illegal
drugs and underage drinking.

"At every party that I went to I would get people's names, one way or
another. We'd go through their yearbooks at the schools. Whether it
was the Dells, Baraboo, it didn't matter where, and they're now on
file," Thomas said.

Thomas said he weakened the resolve of drug users.

"I truly believe I helped out everyone who lives in Wisconsin Dells,"
he said.

Drug dealers will be less likely to trust the people they sell drugs
to. Some might not ever sell or use drugs again, he said.

"I just went in there and just destroyed their world," he
said.

Thomas was involved in putting handcuffs on the very individuals he
strived to befriend during the investigation, but he doesn't feel
guilty for having deceived them.

"I don't really feel that bad, honestly. I look at it like, 'Don't do
the crime if you can't do the time,'" he said.

Thomas will work for the Wisconsin Dells Police Department through
Sept. 17. He is on track to graduate from MATC with an associate
degree in criminal justice in the winter or spring. He said he might
return to work for the Wisconsin Dells Police Department while he
pursues a bachelor's degree in criminal justice at UW-Platteville or
UW-Whitewater.

Ultimately, Thomas said he would like to work for the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration. He anticipates working undercover again,
but not in Wisconsin Dells.

"The cat is out of the bag," Anderson said.