Former BCSO deputy pleads guilty to obstruction of justice

Sept. 24 – A former Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputy pleaded guilty Tuesday to obstruction of justice by tipping off his informant that he was the target of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration drug investigation.

Kyle Linker, 33, pleaded guilty to one count before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer M. Rozzoni of Albuquerque. His surprise confession came after a lengthy criminal investigation that had strained relations between certain sheriff’s office employees and federal authorities in New Mexico.

Linker resigned from his post with the BCSO in 2022 after being placed on paid leave a year earlier when the DEA discovered he had obstructed the agency’s investigation into a December 2021 drug trafficking operation in Albuquerque.

Linker remains free pending sentencing, for which no date has been set. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in North Texas has been prosecuting the case to avoid potential conflicts with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, which handles DEA and other law enforcement cases.

After the hearing, Linker told a Journal reporter, “I will not comment.”

The obstruction/aid and abetting charge to which Linker pleaded guilty carries a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years, but Sean Long, assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, told the judge that federal prosecutors had agreed to a suspended sentence for Linker. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Long demanded that Linker be barred from having any contact with potential witnesses or co-defendants “because this is an ongoing matter.” Charges have yet to be filed against the informant, who eventually admitted to the DEA that Linker had tipped him off in November 2021.

The crux of the case is laid out in the 14-page agreement that Linker signed.

It states, among other things: “Specifically, the defendant admits that he obstructed, influenced, prevented, or attempted to obstruct the DEA’s investigation of CI (confidential informant) by informing CI of the DEA’s pending drug investigation of DI.”

According to the agreement, he also admitted “that he acted corruptly, that is, he knowingly and dishonestly acted with the wrongful intent to obstruct the DEA’s investigation. Finally, the defendant admits that his actions had the natural and probable result of obstructing the DEA’s investigation of CI by attempting to produce unavailable evidence that would have later been used in the federal grant jury trials against CI.”

Linker had developed the confidential informant who had agreed to cooperate with the sheriff’s office “in light of possible drug charges” stemming from evidence found at the drug dealer’s Los Ranchos residence in July 2021.

Because Linker had previously investigated the informant as a “potential target,” “I was able to be notified by other law enforcement officials when they conducted operations near CI’s residence,” his plea agreement states.

In November 2021, the agreement states, Linker was contacted by a DEA special agent about an operation the DEA was conducting near the CI’s home in Los Ranchos.

“Fearing that the DEA operation might target CI, I contacted CI to warn them about the DEA operation,” Linker stated in his plea agreement. “According to my information, CI called off the transaction and the DEA was unable to gather evidence against CI during this planned operation.”

Linker’s confession statement said he later learned that DEA agents examined CI’s phone records and “became suspicious that I had informed CI of DEA activities and thwarted their operation. I also learned that DEA agents then planned another operation in which they would target CI’s residence without first contacting me.”

The agreement states that Linker and another unnamed deputy tried to protect CI from the DEA. At one point, the second deputy told Linker in a text message, “Tell (CI) not to sell to anyone. And go to a hotel for a while or stay with someone else.”

Both deputies met on December 16, 2021, to warn the informant that the DEA “would continue with its drug operation and that CI should ‘shut everything down’ because the DEA did not currently have enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for CI’s residence.”

Linker also gave the informant excuses to avoid any suspicion as to why he had called off the drug deal. He then told the informant to stop calling him and to contact the second deputy instead.

Following that interaction, Linker was suspended from BCSO, the agreement states. The CI was arrested by the DEA on December 16, 2021, for possession of 50 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and is in federal custody.