ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Days after a former Bernalillo County Detective admitted to tipping off a drug dealer about a federal investigation, now a current BCSO deputy is facing charges.
The case unfolded while prior Sheriff Manny Gonzales was still in office. On Thursday, Sheriff Allen said he just learned of the case this week after the feds kept the investigation under wraps for years. “Regardless, if this happened before I took the seat, that in a culture – and I’ve said it before – even when I was running for sheriff, there’s a culture change that needs to happen and we’re doing it,” said Sheriff Allen.
The case goes back nearly three years, centering around a drug dealer who was also a confidential informant for BCSO, Detective Kyle Linker. The feds say in late 2021, the DEA told Linker it was planning an operation near the dealer informant’s home.
The detective then warned his informant about the operation, causing the informant to cancel a planned drug sale with undercover federal agents. The DEA figured out soon after Linker tipped off the informant. That’s what sparked the feds set up another buy where Linker and a second deputy named Paul Jessen are accused of tipping off the informant again.
At that time, the DEA was monitoring the dealer-informant’s communications. Sheriff John Allen says the two deputies used to work together in a unit called the Community Action Team, which was disbanded when Allen took office. “They did have supervisors, they were put on admin leave when they were told what was going on. I didn’t feel that, as the current sheriff, that there was enough safeguard put in place. I didn’t like it. I’ve worked homicides alongside narcotics investigations. I know how we deal with, I wanted there to be far more oversight than what we had previously,” says Allen.
Detective Kyle Linker resigned from BCSO in 2022, months after being put on leave. Deputy Jessen is still on BCSO’s active payroll and facing five counts, including conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges.
Jessen is expected to face a judge for the first time next month. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 70 years in prison.
Kyler Linker pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice Tuesday. Prosecutors are recommending he get probation but he faces up to 20 years in prison.
