News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DEA/Detroit Police Department Homicide Task Force Dismantles Drug Ring

Since the early 1990's, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Detroit Police Department (DPD) have had a close and productive working relationship to help solve drug- related homicides in the City of Detroit. Like most American cities, Detroit has been plagued by unprecedented violence as a result of the narcotics trade which called for enhanced law enforcement working relationships between federal, state and local agencies. As part of this strategy, DEA, Detroit Police, and Michigan State Police investigators have created an elite task force that responds to drug-related homicides. Investigators not only provide intelligence at the scene, but these investigators also gather drug-related information that can be analyzed to initiate narcotics conspiracy investigations on the drug organizations responsible for this violence.

While this task force has had numerous successful investigations, most people don't realize that these investigations are often started from scratch based on very little independent information. The DEA/DPD Homicide Task Force has tenaciously pursued some of the most notorious narcotics organizations in Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago and Toledo.

One recent investigation, which concluded successfully, involved the 1999 drug-related homicide of Calvin Maclin in Detroit. This murder was initially considered "cold" with no viable leads for investigators to work. Early investigation revealed that Maclin was a high-level cocaine trafficker in Detroit with ties to Los Angeles. Family and associates were unwilling to assist investigators. Task force investigators began by issuing subpoenas that would identify Maclin's associates and hopefully connect unknown persons to his murder or the cocaine conspiracy that investigators believed Maclin was a part of in Detroit.

Investigators spent months pouring over records and interviewing prospective witnesses in an attempt to move the investigation forward. DEA and DPD investigators were able to piece together that Maclin was a major cocaine distributor in Detroit and his source of supply was an individual in Los Angeles named Samuel Valdez, who was a member of the LA based "Culver City Boys" street gang. Detroit agents identified that Maclin was responsible for the distribution of over 500 kilograms of cocaine in the Detroit area during 1998-1999. With assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department Gang Unit and the DEA Los Angeles D.O., investigators were able to gather addition information on Valdez and his associates, namely Javier Renteria. Agents showed that the motive for Maclin's murder was a $260,000 drug debt regarding a shipment of cocaine. Maclin's family and associates still refused to assist investigators, but committed police work was beginning to identify the persons involved in Maclin's murder and the reason behind it. Agents were able to show that Samuel Valdez and Javier Renteria, who was also a member of the "Culver City Boys" had stayed in the Detroit area at the time of Maclin's murder and left Detroit the day of Maclin's murder.

Based on significant documentary evidence and subsequent witness testimony, investigators had adequate evidence for a federal grand jury in Detroit to indict Samuel Valdez and Javier Renteria on a six-count drug conspiracy involving cocaine trafficking activities with Calvin Maclin. This investigation is continuing its momentum and additional witnesses will likely lead to additional indictments and specific charges for the murder of Calvin Maclin.