Informant Returns to Old Haunts, Is Shot

A paid informant who was moved out of state four years ago after helping Orange County authorities with a massive crackdown on street crime was shot and seriously injured when he returned to Santa Ana.

Jose G. Nolasco, whose undercover work led to the convictions of more than 100 drug peddlers and other gang members, was shot about 3:30 a.m. Friday in Santa Ana, about a mile east of the neighborhood he helped clean up during a seven-month sting known as Operation Orion, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the incident.

Nolasco, 31, is in an undisclosed hospital. Authorities would not describe his condition or say whether he was under police guard.

Santa Ana police confirmed there was a shooting early Friday morning in the 800 block of South Townsend Street and said the gang unit was pursuing several leads. They would not confirm that Nolasco was the victim or say if retaliation is suspected as the motive.

But two law enforcement officials confirmed the identification. They spoke on condition of anonymity because police and prosecutors are treating the matter as confidential out of concern for the informant’s welfare. One of the officials said investigators suspect Nolasco was targeted in retribution for his role in the 1999 drug sweep.

Nolasco, a convicted drug dealer, was awaiting deportation to South America when Orange County authorities tapped him for Operation Orion, a sweeping investigation that followed years of complaints from Santa Ana residents in a neighborhood plagued by gangs, graffiti, drugs and drive-by shootings.

Nolasco cruised a turf bounded by McFadden Avenue, Harbor Boulevard, 17th Street and the Santa Ana River, buying guns and stolen property in a car equipped with a sophisticated hidden video system.

His street savvy and familiarity with the neighborhood made him an ideal operative, police said, allowing him to gain the trust of criminals who might have been suspicious of an undercover officer.

He ran afoul of the law along the way, trying to pass nearly $6,000 in bad checks at several Orange County businesses in his off hours during the probe. The state attorney general later charged him with three felonies, which were reduced to a single misdemeanor in a plea deal that spared him jail time but required him to repay the money. He was able to do that with a “bonus” from police, which was in addition to the $58,000 he earned during the operation. Authorities, concerned for his safety, also helped him move out of state.

Attorneys for the defendants criticized the relationship between Nolasco and police, and said his crimes were more serious than those of many low-level drug dealers he helped convict.

But Santa Ana police and prosecutors defended Nolasco, saying he earned the money by cleaning up a crime-ridden neighborhood. His work contributed to the issuance of 125 warrants, of which all but 12 resulted in arrests. More than 100 defendants pleaded guilty, and a year later police and neighborhood representatives were giving the area a clean report card.

Michael Molfetta, the Newport Beach attorney who represented Nolasco in the bad check case, was not aware Monday that he had been shot.

“I know they were concerned about [possible gang retaliation] at the time it all happened,” Molfetta said. “Would I have come back to Santa Ana? ... If I were Jose Nolasco, Santa Ana would be the last place on the planet you would find me.”