Episode 6: The Big Takedown

Summary

Valley of Shadows, Episode 6: The Big Takedown

Pushkin Industries | February 9, 2026
Theme: How the search for a missing deputy exposed the Mojave’s meth epidemic, biker gangs, and widespread police corruption.

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Episode Overview

In this gripping installment of "Valley of Shadows," hosts Haley Fox and Betsy Shepard trace the crescendo of Operation Silent Thunder, the multi-agency task force effort to take down Antelope Valley's major meth trafficking rings. The episode explores retired detective Darren Hager’s evolution from lawman to outcast as he stares down corruption within his own department, the personal and professional threats he faced, and the harrowing pressure-cooker environment culminating in an unprecedented coordinated drug raid. Through candid storytelling and vivid recollections, the episode highlights the connections between missing deputy Jon Aujay, local meth kingpins, and sheriff’s deputies alleged to be intertwined with the criminal underworld.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Darren Hager: From Cowboy to Reluctant Pariah

• The episode opens with Hager on his ranch, reflecting on his life after law enforcement, revealing vulnerabilities behind his tough exterior.
  • “We knew from day one the department was fighting us on everything on this… They didn't want us opening the right door to get this case solved.” —Darren Hager (05:29)
• Hager describes feeling isolated and obstructed by his own department, particularly after Detective Brandenburg’s independent investigation is stifled by higher-ups.

2. Operation Silent Thunder: A Herculean Task

• Initially formed to follow up on Aujay’s disappearance, Operation Silent Thunder’s scope broadens to dismantle six major drug rings.
• The episode introduces DEA Special Agent Kent Bailey, who joins reluctantly but becomes a pivotal ally:
  • “She used to call me her Terminator. So I was one of her casemakers.” —Kent Bailey (10:50)
• Surveillance work uncovers that many Sheriff’s Department phone numbers are tied to suspected criminals, suggesting widespread leaks.
  • “We'd go to kick down a door and the suspects were already waiting for us… that's how dangerous it got.” —Darren Hager (12:39)
• Hager faces clear physical threats, including a masked man lurking at his home, and moves into a DEA safehouse for his safety.

3. Unmasking Corruption: Cops, Collaborators, and Criminals

• Wiretap evidence reveals sheriff’s deputies, especially Rick Engels (nicknamed “Deputy Bigfoot”), are discussing criminal activity with meth traffickers.
  • “They call him Rick. You know Rick is doing this or Ingalls is gonna be pissed... like you're talking about another friend in the group…” —Darren Hager (20:01)
• A second homicide detective, Joe Holmes (dubbed “Joe Friday” by criminals), is brought in to work on Aujay’s case. Holmes’s relationship with suspects raises suspicion.
  • “I already put a handle on him. I named him Joe Friday.” —Tom Hinkle (22:19, as paraphrased by Hager)
  • “If Ingalls is dirty, I don't care if he's wearing a badge or not. I'll take him to jail. We're like, beautiful. That's all we asked for.” —Darren Hager (21:37)
• Persistent rumors swirl that the department's “code of silence” is protecting those involved:
  • “Everyone's heard of the code of silence. It does exist. It's not written down… but this case right here just shows 100% that there is a code of silence.” —Darren Hager (29:53)

4. High Stakes: The Hunt for the Weakest Link

• Jeff Sherry, a criminal associate, is identified as a potential informant with crucial knowledge about the Aujay case.
  • When rumors surface that he’s cooperating, deputies—allegedly led by Engels—begin to hunt for Sherry. Hager intervenes:
    • “My eyes, we saved his life because I really think deputies are gonna kill him. You know, it was just... I've never seen anything like it.” —Darren Hager (30:54)
• In custody, Sherry reveals that Hinkle and Engels operated with impunity, stealing chemicals for meth production and possibly implicated in Aujay’s death.
  • “The deputy was out jogging, running and found one of their labs and they, you know, killed the deputy… He said it with a little smile on his face and shit.” —Betsy Shepard relaying Sherry’s statement (35:12, 35:22)

5. Breakthroughs and a Massive Raid

• Operation Silent Thunder expands: wiretaps, raids, a constellation of agencies—Task force arrests explode.

• In August 2001, over 200 officers hit 23 locations simultaneously, targeting labs, safehouses, and homes.

  • “We rolled out with 23 different search warrant teams. Bailey, the Terminator, DEA, FBI, SWAT, you know, and then simultaneously hit these doors across the valley.” —Kent Bailey (38:32)

• Sting reveals the extent of biker and white supremacist involvement. Smuggling methods include hiding meth in hollow car parts.

  • “It just looks like a solid piece of aluminum… pried it off, full of Ziploc freezer bags with dope...” —Darren Hager (39:41)

• The operation results in arrests of nearly 300 people, six major meth cells shut down, 16 labs dismantled, massive seizures of drugs, cash, weapons, and explosives.

6. The Tom Hinkle Raid: God of Meth, Uncracked

• Tom Hinkle, dubbed “God,” is finally in custody, but his compound’s secret underground meth bunker eludes law enforcement, in part due to concealment tactics.

  • “We knew there was an underground bunker, but we never found it… We had NASA and the Air Force base giving us things like that, you know, where they can fly over and see voids in the ground... but with the ceramic toilets, you don't get to see that.” —Darren Hager (42:57, 43:22)

• Agent Bailey directly asks Hinkle about Deputy Aujay’s fate:

  • “I’ll have to take that one with me to the grave.” —Tom Hinkle (via Bailey, 44:30)
  • The episode ends with hints that the next chapter will focus on investigators confronting Hinkle and Engels about their roles in Aujay’s disappearance.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• How bad was Antelope Valley?
  “What a shithole.” —Kent Bailey's blunt first impression (08:36)
• Leaked info within law enforcement:
  “Half of the number, probably more than that... came back to sheriff’s stations off of bad guys’ telephones.” —Darren Hager (11:41)
• On the code of silence:
  “There's certain deputies or law enforcement that say, hey, if you're guilty of especially murder and drug dealing and stuff like that, you shouldn't be carrying the badge. So you're fair game just like every other bad guy that's doing it. So that's the way I feel. And some cops feel that way. And some cops turned a blind eye because they don't want to be a snitch.” —Darren Hager (29:53)
• Meth smuggling ingenuity:
  “It just looks like a solid piece of aluminum... pried it off, full of Ziploc freezer bags with dope.” —Darren Hager (39:41)
• On closing in on the untouchables:
  “We took down five out of six cells that nobody else could. These are names that I knew for 15 years that nobody could get to jail, and we took them all to jail. Federally.” —Darren Hager (44:17)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Meet Darren Hager’s Post-Law Enforcement Life — Ranch scenes, background (02:56–04:51)
• Hager Describes Roadblocks & Pushback from Sheriff's Department (05:03–06:21)
• Operation Silent Thunder Launches; Bailey’s Introduction (07:44–08:54)
• Department Corruption Exposed Through Wiretaps (11:13–12:54)
• Masked Home Intruder; Personal Threats Escalate (13:20–13:59)
• Wiretaps Connect Engels, Hinkle, and Holmes (20:01–23:25)
• Code of Silence and Isolation (29:53–30:54)
• Jeff Sherry's Testimony on Hinkle and Engels (33:49–35:22)
• Major Raid Planning and Execution (38:32–41:37)
• Hinkle Compound Raid, Hidden Bunker Theory (42:57–44:17)
• Hinkle's Interrogation; "To the Grave" Moment (44:30–45:32)

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Final Thoughts

Episode 6 delivers on the promise of both dramatic, true-crime storytelling and eye-opening investigative journalism. The corruption tangled around the Aujay case, as revealed through wiretaps and long-overdue law enforcement action, is laid bare. Listeners walk away with a cliffhanger—Hinkle may be in custody, but what really happened to Deputy John Aujay remains just out of reach, as the "God of Meth" offers only silence.

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“I’ll have to take that one with me to the grave.”
— Tom Hinkle on Deputy Aujay’s disappearance (44:30)

Transcript

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[Haley Fox]

Pushkin.

[Betsy Shepard]

This series includes content that may not be suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Previously on Valley of Shadows.

[Darren Hager]

Major players were never touched by Deputy Ingalls. Nothing ever happened to him. That raised a red flag to me. I went up to a guy named Tom Ingalls. The purchase of methamphetamine. When I went to the other room, I heard, how's it going, Ingalls? Tom said.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

And Ingalls goes, thanks for the bag of rye.

[Darren Hager]

Giraffeian believes that Deputy Ingalls and other unidentified individuals murdered Deputy Ajay to prevent him from arresting them or exposing their criminal activity. A homicide captain saying, detective, do not find out if this guy's guilty or innocent. Who does that? They said, hey, Larry, we're ordered to go out here and get everything you got in the case. You can't beat a morning like this. Just sit here and watch that sun come up between the canyon right there. This is beautiful.

[Haley Fox]

Retired narcotics detective Darren Hager works sun up to sundown at his ranch in rural California. Every morning, he fuels up on black coffee, puts on his furs, and heads out to his pastures. He tends his herd of Angus cows and then drives around servicing other cattle ranches in the area. His days are fairly routine, except when we show up, I will straight up hug a cow if it gets close enough.

[Betsy Shepard]

Oh, they're stepping back. They're sizing us up.

[Haley Fox]

I thought 25 years of being a vegetarian would earn me some love with the cows, but apparently not. Hager lets us tag along with him. Anyway.

[Darren Hager]

So this alfalfa is supposedly sweeter and grass and stuff. That's why they like it. I mean, they got plenty of grass, but they just like this stuff.

[Betsy Shepard]

You're giving them a special treat.

[Darren Hager]

Yeah, they're a little spoiled.

[Haley Fox]

The cows keep their distance, ogling us with their big glassy eyes. So Hager teaches us. Cattle calling 101.

[Darren Hager]

I talk cow.

[Betsy Shepard]

Okay, well, how do you talk cattle?

[Darren Hager]

I got a buddy, he's a stuntman. In the movies, on his herd, he sings, mama, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys.

[Commercial Voice]

Okay.

[Darren Hager]

And his animals come. No, I don't.

[Haley Fox]

Mama, animals, don't let your babies grow.

[Betsy Shepard]

Up to be cowboys.

[Darren Hager]

So his herd comes running when he sings that. And he's a goofball anyways.

[Betsy Shepard]

God, that didn't work on them.

[Haley Fox]

They're all good. Try.

[Darren Hager]

So then mine, I just move like Mo.

[Haley Fox]

Hi, buddies.

[Commercial Voice]

We gotta take her.

[Haley Fox]

Hager always wanted to be a cop or a cowboy. So when his career in law enforcement ended in 2003, he pivoted.

[Darren Hager]

Met some cowboys here, and they got me started in cowboy and got a job at the home ranch. Worked there for a year, learned a lot. Now I raised my own cattle and horse.

[Haley Fox]

It was a steep learning curve with plenty of setbacks. But when Hager gets knocked down, he gets back up on that horse. It's something he had to do a lot while working at the LA County Sheriff's Department. Hager says they tried to hamstring the DEA's narcotic sting, aka Operation Silent Thunder. And they set up all kinds of roadblocks in their AJAY investigation.

[Darren Hager]

We knew from day one the department was fighting us on everything on this. They didn't want us opening the right door to get this case solved.

[Haley Fox]

Early on, the DEA asked the Sheriff's department to assign a homicide detective to their task force to help field all the Audrey tips they were getting. When the LASD said no, Hager found a workaround. He unofficially teamed up with Homicide Detective Larry Brandenburg. They had a good thing going until Brandenburg told his captain that he was looking into Deputy Rick Engels as a potential suspect in Awje's murder. And Brandenburg's investigation got shut down. Hager wasn't too surprised when it happened.

[Darren Hager]

It just fit hand in hand with everything we knew. Everything we did with the department regarding Ajay was getting shut down.

[Haley Fox]

Without Brandenburg, Hager finds himself at a crossroads.

[Darren Hager]

I just said, I gotta get out. This is. This is stupid. You know, what am I doing? But I never quit anything in my life. And I felt I was quitting Ajay if I left the case. Because when you sit there and you think about a fellow deputy who's your family, who has a little child, that's the hardest part about the whole thing. Poor Chloe. She didn't have a dad anymore. And why was that? Well, that's my job as a cop, to help people like that. That's why we all take the oath. We're not out there just taking bad guys to jail. We're taking bad guys to jail to help an innocent person out. That's the whole objective of this. I had a choice. Career, survival. Walk away. Or do I put myself aside and I do it for John. And I went with John.

[Haley Fox]

So Hager gets back in the saddle and helps Operation Silent Thunder level up with wiretaps, federal search warrants, and the biggest drug raid the Antelope Valley had ever seen. I'm Haley Fox.

[Betsy Shepard]

I'm Betsy Shepard. And this is Valley of Shadows. Episode 6 the big takedown. Up until this point, we've mostly talked about Operation Silent Thunder as it relates to the Ajay case. But the task force went far beyond that. Its aim was to take down six major drug trafficking organizations in the Antelope Valley.

[Kent Bailey]

I really had no idea what was going on in Antelope Valley. Hadn't freaking really heard of Antelope Valley.

[Betsy Shepard]

This is DEA Special Agent Kent Bailey talking on the phone with Haley.

[Kent Bailey]

I've never been up to Antelope Valley, never had a desire to go up to Antelope Valley.

[Haley Fox]

What were your first impressions like once you start going out there?

[Kent Bailey]

What a shithole.

[Haley Fox]

What a shithole.

[Commercial Voice]

Camp Bailey's opinion of the Antelope Valley.

[Betsy Shepard]

Did not improve with time. And he'd get his fill of it, thanks to Darren Hager, who roped him into all of this when he requested DEA assistance.

[Darren Hager]

Kent would go, you need a fuel air explosion over the whole Antelope Valley. And this problem would be solved because it was that bad.

[Betsy Shepard]

Sure enough.

[Kent Bailey]

What's your Answer to the Antelope Valley. I said a fuel air explosion.

[Betsy Shepard]

It sounds callous, but Bailey is referencing an apocalyptic 90s movie.

[Kent Bailey]

There's a movie outbreak with Dustin Hoffman in it.

[Betsy Shepard]

Outbreak is about a deadly virus and the US government's plan to contain it by bombing the site of the outbreak.

[Darren Hager]

From the heart of a small California town. Damn it, Sam. I want to save these people same as you. To the inner circle of power, the greatest medical crisis of all time.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

We can't stop him. Begins.

[Betsy Shepard]

Bailey is being hyperbolic to convey how bad things were in the Antelope Valley with its high speed biker meth, crime and corruption. But when Operation Silent Thunder gets going, Hager and Bailey try to clean up the place with a more targeted approach.

[Darren Hager]

We would go out on surveillance, driving around, taking pictures of locations, calling up Arrow Bureau, doing flybys, doing aerial photos. A lot of it was just groundwork. It was building the information up for arrest.

[Kent Bailey]

So we did a lot of intel gathering, so to speak, to try to find out a suspect list of who we could go to. Find out the weakest link in that chain and then start targeting to work back up to the top.

[Betsy Shepard]

They work their way up the food chain of the area's narcotic cells, from dealers to cooks, go betweens and eventually the top dogs. Over time, their suspect list grows into the triple digits. Bailey says Operation Silent Thunder was one of the biggest projects he ever worked on. And he was known in the LA field office for getting things done. His boss at the DEA even had a nickname for him.

[Kent Bailey]

She used to call me her Terminator. So I was one of her casemakers.

[Haley Fox]

And what does she mean by casemaker?

[Kent Bailey]

A guy who's able to put complex cases together.

[Betsy Shepard]

So Hager has found a good match in Bailey. Given how complex the case is and all the pushback he's getting from the sheriff's department.

[Darren Hager]

It was very nerve wracking because the department was so anti solving this case or looking into this case. It took a big toll on me.

[Betsy Shepard]

Hager starts to piece together why it is he thinks the department is giving them so much shit. It happens. While he's surveilling key players in the drug scene.

[Darren Hager]

We would put traces on the numbers, the telephone numbers, and see what numbers were calling them. Half of the number, probably more than that. There was a lot came back to sheriff's stations off of bad guys telephones.

[Betsy Shepard]

Hager says that multiple sheriff's deputies were calling multiple targets of their narcotics investigation. He has a hard time making sense.

[Darren Hager]

Of what's going on in my mind. These are all my buddies. They're not dirty. I worked with them. We've had barbecues together. These are good people. There's no way any of this is true. So at the start, I was a non believer until you got knee deep into what was going on, and then you get the true information about it.

[Betsy Shepard]

When they get knee deep into it, they figure out that the local cops are leaking information to friends on the other side of the law and alerting them to impending raids.

[Darren Hager]

We'd go to kick down a door and the suspects were already waiting for us. They were on the phone with the sheriff's department, being notified we were going to kick the door as we kicked the door. I mean, that's how dangerous it got.

[Betsy Shepard]

Haeger is rattled. He worries that during the next raid he might walk into a shootout because the more word spreads about the task force, the more enemies he racks up. And then this threat of violence shows up at his doorstep. He wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of a car pulling up. He gets up, looks out the window and sees a guy approaching his house.

[Darren Hager]

And the guy put a mask on and he knocked on the door and ran back behind the pillar and stood there. And I was watching the whole thing from upstairs. And he did this like three or four times. And I something told me, don't go open the door, don't confront him.

[Betsy Shepard]

It's an unnerving experience, especially given the violence of the local drug trade and what Hager's been uncovering in Operation Silent Thunder.

[Darren Hager]

With the things that we already knew and the bodies that had disappeared and the case that's going on, I just figured somebody didn't want me in the picture anymore to investigate whatever I was investigating.

[Betsy Shepard]

After the masked man, incidentally, Hager moves out of his house and decamps to the DEA safe house where he begins living full time. He isn't scared off the case, but he is feeling its strain. The task force has consumed his whole life. He's exhausted. He's constantly having to look over his shoulder. And still he can't stop thinking about John Auge.

[Darren Hager]

I sat there numerous times alone in the middle of the night on surveillance. I shouldn't have been out there. I did it on my own. Everyone else was in bed. But I wanted to solve the case and I just said, john, just talk to me. Where the hell are you? What happened?

[Betsy Shepard]

Ajay never talked back. But the case does take a turn when Operation Silent Thunder wiretaps go live.

[Kent Bailey]

They are not easy to get. You have to show that there is no other investigative means that would enable you to achieve your goals. And then you have to show that that guy's using this telephone number for criminal activity.

[Betsy Shepard]

Agent Bailey and Deputy Hager have collected mounds of evidence on key players in the meth scene, including the godlike Tom Hinkle. The task force uses it to establish probable cause to apply for federal wiretaps. When the team gets the green light, information pours out onto the wires. Bailey describes one of these taps as their Jerry Springer wire because there was so much action on it. And the information proves valuable when they raid a storage unit containing explosives, firearms, and some stolen sheriff's gear.

[Kent Bailey]

We found their weapons stash, and I think it ended up being one of the largest weapons seizures that ATF made at the time. Certainly one of the largest ones up in Antelope Valley.

[Betsy Shepard]

Hager says that wiretaps can be a case making law enforcement tool.

[Darren Hager]

I can go out and interview a suspect or an informant, victim or whatever. And a lot of times they tell you what a cop wants to hear, you know, trying to get you to go away. But when you're on a wiretap, you're hearing a conversation between two people that don't think cops are involved. So you're getting the truth.

[Betsy Shepard]

But first, Hager and company have to crack the code, because when it comes to drugs, there's a lot of sideways talk.

[Darren Hager]

It was like, are the enchiladas ready? That was your grandma meth, or it was a burrito. For an ounce of method. We're like, dude, hungry, like, constantly. These are things we had to learn, you know? And tweakers, I don't know if you've ever met a tweaker. They're literally 100 miles an hour, so their phone is ringing off the hook. Phone call, phone call, phone call, phone call.

[Betsy Shepard]

And one of the names that keeps surfacing on these phone calls is Rick Angles, AKA Deputy Bigfoot.

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[Haley Fox]

The Silent Thunder Task Force is lying in wait, listening in on their phone taps when a familiar name comes back on their radar. Deputy Rick Engels.

[Darren Hager]

They call him Rick. You know Rick is doing this or Ingalls is going to be pissed. And I mean, it's just more of a like you're talking about another friend in the group or another business partner type of thing. It really pushed me to the edge where I was saying it's not on the up and up.

[Haley Fox]

So Hager's DEA counterpart, Agent Kent Bailey, goes back to the sheriff's department and asks a second time for a homicide detective to work directly with the task force. Someone to follow up in real time with all their Ajay leads and look into Rick Engels.

[Kent Bailey]

I beg for the homicide guys to work side by side. We'll be doing the dope case. You do the homicide stuff.

[Haley Fox]

The department relents and appoints Detective Joe Holmes for the Job.

[Kent Bailey]

He looked like the fucking guy from Dragnet.

[Haley Fox]

Bailey says Holmes had a crew cut and a by the books kind of vibe. Just like Joe Friday, the lead detective on the 50s TV show Dress Dragnet.

[Kent Bailey]

Just the facts, ma'.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Am.

[Kent Bailey]

Just the facts.

[Haley Fox]

Detective Holmes is the guy who shows up at Brandenburg's doorstep to retrieve the Ajay case file. He then meets with Hager and Bailey to get up to speed on their investigation.

[Darren Hager]

We sat in the safe house and said, this is what we have. We don't know where to go with it. You guys took Larry off of it. We want you to come full bore. Gave it to Joe Holmes, and he says, you guys got a homicide on your hands.

[Kent Bailey]

Yeah, that was the first thing he said is, oh, it looks like you guys got a murder here.

[Darren Hager]

He goes, if Ingalls is dirty, I don't care if he's wearing a badge or not. I'll take him to jail. We're like, beautiful. That's all we asked for.

[Haley Fox]

Holmes has been at the LASD for 25 years at this point, and his colleagues describe him as the gold standard of homicide cops. Almost as soon as he's assigned to the homicide case, Holmes name surfaces on the wires. While Hager's listening in on Tom Hinkle's phone calls, he hears Methaclaus talking with a guy named Jeff Sherry, a lifelong criminal in the Pear Blossom area. The two are discussing the new homicide detective assigned to the Ajay case.

[Darren Hager]

Jeff says Holmes is a nice guy. And then Hinkle says, yeah, I already put a handle on him. I named him Joe Friday.

[Haley Fox]

Joe Friday from Dragnet.

[Darren Hager]

And they're laughing about it and stuff like that. So to me, there's some type of cordial relationship between the two of them that Hinkle's not worried about. Anything from Joe Holmes?

[Haley Fox]

Hager says that on the wiretaps, Hinkle didn't sound concerned about Detective Holmes. Hager's listening to recordings of the wiretaps as a reference. He won't let us hear the tapes, given the privacy restrictions around them, but he offers to describe the conversations in broad strokes.

[Darren Hager]

Jeff Sherry wants to know how long they're going to leave this thing open, referring to the investigation. And Tom's response is, well, it's more than that. And Jeff is amazed that something made it all the way to the District Attorney's office. And Tom agrees. And they're both admitting that something got very close when it made it to the District Attorney's office regarding the investigation.

[Commercial Voice]

Could it be the Brandenburg AFFIDAVIT that's.

[Darren Hager]

What my feeling is, because Larry Brandenburg did take it to a DA for authorization, that there was enough evidence to go forward with it.

[Haley Fox]

Remember, Larry Brandenburg wrote up a search warrant asking to track Deputy Rick Engel's vehicle and review his phone and financial records. Then he took it to a district attorney. Hager thinks that's what Jeff Sherry is talking about, that the AWJE investigation was getting close. And he feels pretty certain that Sherry knows what happened to John Auge because Sherry's closely tied in with Hinkle, his sister's Hinkle's longtime girlfriend. And for a while, they all lived under the same roof. Plus, Sherry's a known entity in the area.

[Darren Hager]

If something happened in the Pear Blossom area, Jeff Sherry's name was in it. His name always came up.

[Haley Fox]

Jeff Sherry's rap sheet is truly one of the longest I've ever seen. Like the criminal version of one of those never ending CVS receipts. There's numerous felonies, mostly drug crimes. And one of the arrests on his record was made by Darren Hager back when he was still a rookie deputy.

[Darren Hager]

That was my first narcotic arrest, and I didn't deal with him ever again until the Ajay case. And he popped back up into my life.

[Haley Fox]

Sherry's voice pops up on the wires talking to Tom Hinkle about the Ajay case. And during this conversation, Hinkle brings up another murder.

[Darren Hager]

He goes, yeah, look at that Standish case.

[Haley Fox]

Lynn Standish was the woman who died from a bomb explosion in Pear Blossom. There were tire tracks leading from the murder scene directly to Hinkle's home. Deputy Bigfoot Angles arrived at the scene and spoke to Hinkle alone, just before the homicide detective questioned him. And that homicide detective was none other than Dun, dun, dun. Joe Friday, AKA Joe Holmes. So the Ajay case is the second murder case in which Holmes crosses paths with Rick Engels and Tom Hinkle. And the phone call between Hinkle and Sherry discusses Holmes in the context of these two cases.

[Darren Hager]

Jeff Sherry said, yeah, they're trying to create something. And for some reason, Tom goes, that's not even dead and stinking yet. Which is a very odd statement. I mean, dead and stinking. And here we are in a homicide investigation. Sounds like they know that there's a dead body somewhere or someone hasn't found it.

[Haley Fox]

Hager is convinced Sherry knows something about Ajay's murder, and he thinks Sherry's a weak link in Hinkle's operation, someone he might be able to flip. Into an informant because he's got such.

[Darren Hager]

A lengthy history that you might be able to turn him because he doesn't want to go, you know, with the third strike that was back then, he doesn't want to go to prison for the rest of his life. So he was important to talk to.

[Haley Fox]

So Hager keeps surveilling the phone lines unnoticed, trying to decode the conversations, record a confession or at least collect as much dirt as possible before his cover's blown. But then another call comes into Hinkles, and Hager overhears some information he can't just sit on because it seems Jeff Sherry's life is in danger. It starts when Hinkle gets a call from a friend who tells him that Jeff Sherry is snitching.

[Darren Hager]

They're worried that Jeff Sherry wrote an affidavit of some sort about Rick Engels involvement with Tom Hinkle.

[Haley Fox]

The caller had heard a rumor that Sherry was giving up Engels and Hinkle.

[Darren Hager]

Now we're hearing this conversation how tomorrow Tom's worried about, well, can you get that? I need to know what it says.

[Haley Fox]

Hinkle wants to see this affidavit. Hager and Bailey know of no such document. Nonetheless, the rumor causes quite the stir. According to a summary of the conversation, Hinkle asks, what's wrong with Sherry? To which his friend replies, I don't know. Doesn't he know what angles will do?

[Darren Hager]

Immediately after we heard it on the phone call, I got a call from parole saying that Rick Ingalls is looking for Jeff Sherry with a couple other deputies.

[Haley Fox]

Shortly after Sherry is accused of ratting, Ingalls allegedly calls Sherry's parole officer asking for his whereabouts. Then he and a posse of deputies start searching for him. So when Hager hears that Engels and company are out hunting for Sherry, he assumes the worst, that the deputy is trying to put an end to Sherry's snitching permanently. Hager springs into action to make sure Jeff Sherry doesn't disappear.

[Darren Hager]

So I get a hold of Bailey. I go, we gotta get him. We gotta get him now or else.

[Haley Fox]

So Hager guns it to Sherry's home. What comes next is uncorroborated.

[Darren Hager]

DID And I park the car. I get out, walk by the apartment. There's Jeff Sherry right on the the porch right in front of his door.

[Haley Fox]

Hager's first on scene, but he needs backup. So he calls into the nearest sheriff station.

[Darren Hager]

I go, look, this guy's a runner. He's a fighter. And then he's probably armed and I need someone good. He goes, all right, I'll send you some deputies. They go, thanks.

[Haley Fox]

One of the deputies that shows up is a friend of angle's.

[Darren Hager]

He goes, go back to your car. We'll handle this. I said, no, you're going to obey my orders, and I'm going to tell you how to handle this, because I'm the on scene commander right now. Because we're not doing anything until you leave. Like, this is going to get ugly.

[Haley Fox]

It's a tense standoff, and there's a lot of subtext buried within this interaction. By this point, Haeger is Persona non grata in these parts because over the course of operation silent thunder, the task force has documented questionable behavior from a number of deputies, including Rick engels. As word leaks out about what haeger and the feds have discovered, the local cops turn on him.

[Darren Hager]

I didn't have a single friend anymore. Not a single deputy would talk to me. Nobody. Because they all thought I was a rat. Everyone's heard of the code of silence. It does exist. It's not written down. No one could ever prove it. But this case right here just shows 100% that there is a code of silence. There's certain deputies or law enforcement that say, hey, if you're guilty of especially murder and drug dealing and stuff like that, you shouldn't be carrying the badge. So you're fair game just like every other bad guy that's doing it. So that's the way I feel. And some cops feel that way. And some cops turned a blind eye because they don't want to be a snitch.

[Haley Fox]

Hager and Sherry have little in common, but at this particular moment in time, they find themselves in a similar situation. They're both in hot water because of what they know. In an escalating battle of wills, Hager wins the standoff. And he takes Jeff Sherry into custody.

[Darren Hager]

My eyes. We saved his life because I really think deputies are gonna kill him. You know, it was just. I've never seen anything like it.

[Haley Fox]

And Hager finally gets his chance to question Sherry about the ajay case.

[Darren Hager]

Just tell me what you know about Tom and who he's associated with out paraglass and things like that. They call him God.

[Haley Fox]

They call him God. Sherry says.

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[Betsy Shepard]

Once Jeff Sherry's in custody, Detective Hager interviews him. He asks him about Tom Hinkle and.

[Darren Hager]

There'S rumors about who he's associated with. Right.

[Betsy Shepard]

That's a young Hager. His voice was less seasoned back in 2001.

[Darren Hager]

Seven people. Who's that? Hinkle. Rick Hinkles. Where's Rick Ingalls? Sheriff.

[Betsy Shepard]

Sherry says Tom Hinkle associates with Rick Engels, the sheriff. Engels was actually the resident deputy of the area, but given his power over the Regent, many view him as the sheriff. Sherry says that Tom Hinkle and Deputy Engels were spotted all over Pear Blossom hanging with known meth manufacturers and that they would steal chemicals from rival meth gangs and then use it to cook their dope.

[Darren Hager]

And about this missing deputy. Tom told you a few different story about it? Oh, it's the first story he told me. He said. He said her investigation can.

[Betsy Shepard]

He said he was under investigation because they think that him and Engels the.

[Darren Hager]

Skeptic, was out jogging, running, you know, down under laps, you know, they were killing the deputy.

[Betsy Shepard]

The deputy was out jogging, running and found one of their labs and they, you know, killed the deputy.

[Darren Hager]

He said, smile and face his shit.

[Betsy Shepard]

He said it with a little smile on his face and shit. And he goes, I wouldn't do anything like that, would I? That's as far as Sheri is willing to go. But he may have known a lot more about what happened to Ajay, because years later, a woman we'll call Jane came forward to report a disturbing interaction she had with a neighbor in the Pear Blossom area.

[Darren Hager]

Used to call him Scary Jeff Sherry.

[Betsy Shepard]

Jane says they used to hang out occasionally. And one night they were in her garage when out of nowhere, Sherry starts in on the missing deputy.

[Darren Hager]

He started carrying on about how he knew about this cop that disappeared. As soon as he told me the story, my whole body turned into chills.

[Betsy Shepard]

Then she says, Sherry described where the missing copy was buried.

[Darren Hager]

He described with his hands in the air, you know, making a big triangle, you know, that the cop is buried on this guy's property with the biggest a frame house there is, that this cop was buried under this. A frame house.

[Betsy Shepard]

And it just so happens that a big A frame house is the kind of house Tom Hinkle lived in.

[Darren Hager]

And after he left, I was in tears because I believed him. And I still do.

[Betsy Shepard]

Jane immediately wrote down what she heard and then submitted a tip to the FBI. We don't know if they investigated the lead because again, they can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. But in her message, Jane begs the FBI for some reassurance that her fears are misplaced. She says, please tell me this guy is full of crap. It's not a real story. I'm hoping your reply will be, when Jeff Sherry's in custody, he stops short of giving Hager proof of Hinkle and Engel's involvement in Ajay's disappearance. So the task force sits tight and continues to listen in on Tom Hinkle's wire, which is a springboard for Hager and Bailey's wider narco investigation.

[Darren Hager]

Our case was building stronger and stronger. Every single Day we were making arrests. We were. Our case was 100% on.

[Haley Fox]

Operation Silent Thunder spans 18 months, involves long days of building probable cause, monitoring wiretaps, and serving search warrants. The task force is making sporadic arrests, doing surveillance, but it's all culminating in a massive takedown that will cause ripple effects across the Antelope Valley. The takedown starts in the early morning hours of August 21, 2001. More than 200 law enforcement officers from at least six different agencies are fanning out across the Antelope Valley and beyond. They're about to raid 23 locations with known associations to the meth trade. The targets include labs and dealers, houses. The plan is to hit them all at once so the targets do have time to tip each other off.

[Kent Bailey]

So we rolled out with 23 different search warrant teams. Bailey, the Terminator, DEA, FBI, SWAT, you know, and then simultaneously hit these doors across the valley.

[Haley Fox]

Hager and Bailey were posted up at the command center, coordinating efforts from a central location and getting updates from agents in the field.

[Kent Bailey]

The search marks were done at the crack of dawn. You know, we finished until we collapsed into bed that night and then got back up in the morning.

[Haley Fox]

There were mass arrests, many with ties to biker gangs like the Vagos and white supremacist groups like Supreme White Power, who reportedly funded their organization through their aggressive narcotics trade. These meth operations had tentacles that crossed state lines. Many were flying below the radar, operating under the guise of legitimate businesses. One dealer was shipping meth inside custom made car parts that he manufactured himself. The task force had no idea how the dealer was moving his meth. But after they see some metal rods during the big bust, Hager makes the discovery.

[Darren Hager]

It just looks like a solid piece of aluminum. I go, there's something with this. Took him to the hospital, had him x rayed. And they go, this looks kind of hollow.

[Haley Fox]

The hollow rod is part of a drive shaft, so Hager takes it to a mechanic to give it a look.

[Darren Hager]

So they took pliers and grabbed on stuff and they're twisting all of a sudden where those two rings are. It moved. Pried it off. Full of Ziploc freezer bags with dope. We only took two of those, and the house was filled with them. Who knows what we missed?

[Haley Fox]

The sells were sophisticated and good at covering their tracks. At a press conference, Sheriff Lee Baca, who was head of the LASD at the time, referred to those arrested in the Operation Silent Thunder sting as the godfathers of meth.

[Darren Hager]

We put a big hurt into what we called the untouchables we put a big scare into them. We took a lot of them into custody. We dismantled that organization for a long time.

[Haley Fox]

And one of the godfathers of meth is God himself, Tom Hinkle. After the task force extracted what they could from Hinkle's phone line, they decided it was time to raid his compound. The A frame the house on the hill. There's a lot of proof prep that needs to be done for a raid of this kind. The task force assigns a surveillance team to track Rick Engels. They want to keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't interfere when they're serving this high risk search warrant. The task force is on edge because Tom Hinkle had said that if law enforcement came for him, he'd go down shooting. The unit in charge of surveilling and securing Hinkle home during the raid was the Special Enforcement Bureau, the unit Ajay belonged to.

[Kent Bailey]

They obviously wanted to do that because Hinkle was, you know, one of the number one names being thrown around with Ajay's disappearance.

[Betsy Shepard]

So one morning, nearly three years after Ajay disappeared, the task force puts their plans into motion. They post up around Hinkle's home and wait until he gets into his car to head down his long dirt driveway. Then the team moves in to arrest him. Camouflage shooters emerge from the brush. A helicopter swoops in. Deputy Bigfoot Angles, even races onto the scene as soon as he hears about the raid. But he doesn't get out of his car. He just lurks on the perimeter of the property before driving down the road to his house. Officers on the scene understanding, uncover all sorts of things tucked away in unlikely places. There's nearly $2,000 in cash hidden inside a stereo speaker. There's a police scanner, a pager, sandwich baggies full of what appears to be marijuana. And there's a rifle and ammunition stashed inside an ice cream truck parked on the property. The task force only finds one small baggie of meth, though maybe Hinkle's stock was low because the task force had already busted his main supplier. But Hager thinks that law enforcement just missed Hinkle's stash.

[Darren Hager]

When we took down Hinkle's house, we knew there was an underground bunker, but we never found it. Could not find that bunker. But I know exactly where it is.

[Betsy Shepard]

At least Hager thinks he does. Just like those meth filled car parts. He thinks Hinkle's bunker was hiding in plain sight and theorizes he Hinkle found a low Tech way to conceal his stash.

[Darren Hager]

There was a bunch of broken toilets around the whole thing. So when you do an air surveillance with heat, infrared, the reflection off the ceramic, you don't get any heat out of it. Because we had NASA and the Air Force base giving us things like that, you know, where they can fly over and see voids in the ground with their technology. But with the ceramic toilets, you don't get to see that.

[Betsy Shepard]

So they don't find much meth, but the task force gets what they've come. Tom Hinkle. The task force arrests him, along with nearly 300 others involved in the area's meth trade. It shuts down 16 labs and confiscates weapons and explosives. It seizes more than $2 million worth of drugs, the equivalent of nearly $4 million today, and enough chemicals to make 370 pounds of finished methamphetamine.

[Darren Hager]

We took down five out of six cells that nobody else could. These are names that I knew for 15 years that nobody could get to jail, and we took them all to jail. Federally.

[Betsy Shepard]

A local news outlet called Operation Silent Thunder, the biggest sting in the history of the Valley. But one of the things Hager's most proud of is his role in building cases against people he believes were involved in John Ajay's disappearance. After the task force takes Tom Hinkle into custody, DEA agent Kent Bailey asks him point blank, what do you know about the missing deputy John Ajay? Hinkle replies, quote, I'll have to take that one with me to the grave, end quote. But law enforcement has ways of getting people to open up, especially when they're in custody and staring down federal jail time.

[Darren Hager]

Mr. Hinkle, you want to give me your full name? Thomas Dean Hinkle. And your birth date? 12446. Mr. Hinkle, before we got on tape, I told you that anything you say to me would not be used in a court of law against you.

[Kent Bailey]

Okay? Understand?

[Darren Hager]

You have to speak because the tape doesn't understand.

[Betsy Shepard]

Investigators finally get a chance to hear what Tom Hinkle has to say.

[Darren Hager]

Jeff Sherry made a statement to the police that myself and Rick Ingalls knew something about that deputy that was missing.

[Betsy Shepard]

That's next time on Valley of Shadows.

[Darren Hager]

I looked him straight in the eyes and I said, tom, you got anything to say? We asked him what he knows about Deputy Engels, his knowledge of the disappearance of the deputy, the whole nine yards. We're talking with Deputy Rick Ingalls. Silent Von Drew was also convincing me for killing John Odget. Based upon some rumors that Tweet was going to spread around. We were in competition to see who could be more corrupt than the other. I mean, I'd like to say LAPD one, but when I look back on it now, I think we bested them.

[Betsy Shepard]

If you have any information or tips related to the disappearance of John Haje, please call 213-262-9889 or email ShadowsPushkin FM Valley of Shadows is reported, written and produced by us, Betsy shepherd and Haley Fox. Our editor is Diane Hodson. Our executive producers are Jacob Smith and Alexandra Garriton. Original music by Jake Gorski, Ray Lynch, Mike Jersich and Hayden Gardner Sound design by Jake Gorski Fact checking by Annika Robbins, additional production support by Sonia Gerwitt and our show Art was designed by Sean Carney and Betsy Shepherd. Special thanks thanks to Nick White for the show Art Photo. Valley of Shadows is a production of Pushkin Industries. To find more Pushkin Podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts from. Type 2 fun. We're Betsy and Haley. See you next week. Subscribe to Pushkin plus to hear the entire season of Valley of Shadows ad free starting January 12th. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks and early ad free listening from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin plus on the Valley of Shadows show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin FM plus. Thanks for your support. Apple Books is the best way to read or listen to the books you love without a subscription right on your iPhone and a heads up for listeners. Apple Books is the official audiobook and ebook home for Reese's Book Club so you can discover every exciting pick, plus author curated collections and more all in one place. Open the Apple Books app to explore a world of books and audiobooks. You can set and track your reading goals and get great recommendations for your next read or listen again. No subscription required. Visit Apple Co Reese that's R E E S E Applebooks to find out more at CVS it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night, and we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and yeah, healthy snack. At cvs, we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters. So Visit [e-mail] or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location. This is Sarah Spain from Good Game.

[Haley Fox]

With Sarah Spain, brought to you in part by Vital Farms. Let me tell you why Vital Farms Pasture raised eggs are the only eggs I have in my fridge. The hens, they're living the good life.

[Betsy Shepard]

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[Haley Fox]

I use my Vital Farms for my famous frittatas and you could trace your eggs back to the farm they came from. Check the carton for the farm name.

[Betsy Shepard]

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[Haley Fox]

You'Re looking at the pasture. So next time you're in the store, look for the black carton in the egg aisle and visit vitalfarms.com to learn more. Vital Farms Good eggs, no shortcuts.