Snowmass man wanted in DEA drug case still at large

An Old Snowmass man who remains a fugitive after being charged with participation in a multistate drug ring has a criminal record including at least five prior drug-related charges.Glen Fuller, 50, is charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute by the Drug Enforcement Administration. He has not been arrested and is considered a fugitive, although on Wednesday the resident agent in charge with the DEA’s Grand Junction office said the organization is in contact with Fuller’s attorney, ideally to arrange for the defendant to turn himself in.Aspen resident Thomas Blank, 65, was arrested by DEA agents on Tuesday morning at his workplace – he faces the same charges as Fuller and has appeared before a federal judge in Denver.Sources said that Blank worked at Wild Rose Cafe and Catering in the Aspen Airport Business Center, although a woman who answered the phone at the business would not confirm that.”I’m so upset about this – I don’t want to talk about it,” she said before hanging up.Federal agents suspect that both Fuller and Blank have a role in the drug ring that smuggled millions of dollars in heroin, cocaine and marijuana into the country from Mexico. Operation Money Clip began in 2002 and has resulted in 83 total arrests and 26 seizures of large amounts of cash, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs.The DEA has not specified what Fuller’s and Blank’s roles allegedly were within the drug ring. Steve Sperry at the DEA’s Grand Junction office said the DEA has been investigating both men for almost a year.”I can’t go into the details of the investigation, but identifying other individuals involved with the organization led us to identifying these two men there in Aspen,” Sperry said.According to a background check performed online by The Aspen Times, Fuller’s criminal record includes charges from 1980 out of Broward County, Fla., for constructive possession and possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. In 1989, 1991 and 1992 he was charged with distribution of drugs out of Middlesex County, N.J.Other activity on his record includes traffic misdemeanors out of Garfield, El Paso and Otaro counties in Colorado, and traffic infractions in Rockbridge and Richmond counties, VA.Fuller lives in a home in Little Elk Creek in Old Snowmass. A neighbor of his, who asked not to be identified, said that Fuller is “the nicest guy in the world when he’s not in a jam.””Ever since we moved here he’s been on parole or probation for different drug charges,” the neighbor said. “He’s a hot-headed guy with a short fuse, and later on he gets remorseful and makes things good. He can be very friendly.”Neighbors were questioned about Fuller’s whereabouts on Tuesday morning when DEA agents arrived to arrest him, he said.”It’s been so quiet for so long – maybe five years or so that a lot of us thought that he’d straightened himself out,” the neighbor said.Naomi Havlen’s e-mail address is nhavlen@aspentimes.com