Sunday, December 30, 2012

Is Nygren investigating Zinke?

Is McHenry County Sheriff Nygren really investigating Undersheriff Andy Zinke for revealing a confidential DEA drug investigation to a "close friend" (as described by the Northwest Herald) and political contributor to both Zinke and Nygren?

Last summer Sgt. John Koziol was a member of a DEA Task Force out of Rockford, Ill. Koziol informed Zinke, as required under General Orders of the Sheriff's Department, that the DEA had discovered in Texas a truck containing illegal drugs that was headed for the RITA Corporation in Crystal Lake, Ill.

Zinke, of course, should have kept his mouth shut and let the chips fall where they might. If anyone at RITA Corporation was complicit, catch him. If no one was involved in anything illegal, that would be clear in the DEA investigation. Maybe the drugs would have been off-loaded before the truck reached Crystal Lake.

Instead, Zinke revealed the confidential investigation to RITA Corp. president Brian Goode, who is a heavy political fund contributor to Nygren, a contributor to Zinke's early election campaign for Sheriff in 2014, and member of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department Merit Commission, having been appointed by Nygren in 2004.

Is Nygren investigating Zinke? Will Nygren discipline Zinke? Will Zinke be demoted? Fired? Will the results of his investigation and any discipline be made public?

Is it in the public interest to know the results of the investigation into Zinke's releasing confidential information to a possible target of a DEA investigation?

7 comments:

Justin said...

LOL....HaHA HaHA HaHA HaHA.....

Is Nygren investigating Zinke?

Will Nygren discipline Zinke?

HaHA HaHA HaHA HaHA...It's almost New Years, not April Fools day...

I think I pissed my pants laughing so hard.

Curious1 said...

He made a judgement call to bring in a potential witness with evidence. He was open and transparent in this call. No one has even accused Goode or Rita of illegal behavior. This was a 3rd party truck making other stops. I hope my next UPS package is not on the same truck as someone ordering overseas prescription drugs, by your logic that would seem to make me and everyone else with a package on that truck guilty.

Gus said...

Curious1, "Second verse, same as the first." What was that old Beatles' song?

Zinke made a WRONG judgement call. Goode wasn't a "potential witness". Give me a break. You know it; I know it. With drugs headed for his company's loading dock, Goode was a potential suspect.

That's what Zinke spoiled. Had he kept his mouth shut and his mitts off, Goode might have been totally cleared.

Because Zinke butted in, now we are left to wonder if Goode or his company was involved!

I wonder when the DEA will charge Zinke. And if Nygren will ever really investigate Zinke's wrong-doing.

A commercial truck headed for RITA Corporation can't even be compared to a UPS package delivery truck.

Unknown said...

I'm gonna go with DEA will NOT charge Zinke. I read somewhere that this was the second time a truck had been found to be carrying drugs headed to numerous stops AND The Rita Corp in the past. Who knows for sure-except that our State's Attorney has had his minions look into if any laws had been broken, and in their EXPERT opinion (muffled laugh here), they found nothing wrong.

Curious1 said...

The thing that entertains the most is this is all wild conjecture. One employee throwing a fit his boss didn't follow the employees orders. All but Koziol have kept this investigation out of the general public's view as it should be. I don't have a problem with using human intel in such an operation and that was well with in our Under-Sheriff's discretion. Where things get dangerous for all is when someone goes public with the details. I get because you don't like Nygren and Zinke you want to prejudge on of their supporters as some kind of drug kingpin with cartel ties, but overwhelming odds are that the Rita Corporation was a victim of having goods on the same shipment the cartels had some of their stuff on. Happens every day, and we shouldn't be so quick to be the judge and jury.

The reality is the investigation is bound to be ongoing and with Koziol off the task force we probably won't be reading about how it is going in the papers anymore, as it should be.

Gus said...

I'm glad you are "entertained". No one else is. And I'll bet the DEA is not.

You're twisting the facts and injecting "spin". You are the only one complaining about a "boss" not following an employee's "orders".

You are unwilling to admit that Zinke was 100% wrong to inform Goode. Zinke and you must be good friends.

Zinke wasn't using HumInt. He was wrongfully disclosing a confidential DEA investigation to a possible target in the investigation.

I am not accusing Goode or RITA Corp. I don't know to what extent, if any, they were complicit. But the DEA was going to find out, and Zinke ruined that.

Where in the world do you get your "overwhelming odds"? Nothing substantiates that!

That investigation is probably dead in the water, thanks to Zinke's failure to keep his mouth shut. Did he endanger any DEA informants?

I don't know Koziol, but I'm proud of him for standing up about Zinke's incredibly irresponsible action.

Ray said...

Curious 1, this is what you get. State the facts, draw some conclusions that don't fit Gus's worldview, and you are "a spinner."

He accuses you of not seeing the forest for the trees, yet he never responds to the primary facts of a case (which are not in his favor, i.e. all of those big barky things with leaves turn out to be trees)

The bigger mystery is whether Gus knows this or not, my guess is that he doesn't ... and therefore lets others drag him into intellectual fights (that he doesn't understand and that he can never win.) (and can never admit that he has lost).

This is about the fifth or sixth set of circumstances where I have seen Gus argue the world is flat, and then accuse others of spin when they suggest that the evidence supports that it is indeed spherical.

In a couple of instances he has been confronted with some pretty direct evidence that he was wrong, but never ever has he admitted it. I don't believe he posseses that superpower.