By now, Callaway County Sheriff Dennis Crane probably wishes he’d never heard of Aaron Malin.

Malin, Director of Research for Show-Me Cannabis, a Missouri reform group aiming to legalize adult cannabis use, medical marijuana and industrial hemp through the state’s 2016 ballot, began to suspect that something may be fishy with the Mid-Missouri Unified Strike Team and Narcotics Group (MUSTANG) in late 2013, as he began researching the way the 27 multi-county drug task forces (DTFs) operate in the state. These task forces, he knew, received funding from the so-called Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (JAGs) from the federal Justice Department to beef up local law enforcement. Some states take this money to increase services for drug addiction treatment, but Missouri overwhelmingly funnels the money into funding the kind of police militarization which came on full display during the shocking crackdown of the racial justice protests in Ferguson.

Disturbing, yes, but not illegal. Yet Malin began to suspect that there was more to the story — that at least some of these groups were improperly fighting to keep cannabis criminalized while keeping their operations secret. Fortunately, in keeping with the state’s “Show Me” motto, Missouri has one of the most robust Sunshine Laws in the country — so Malin filed a request with Sheriff Crane, MUSTANG’s custodian of records, asking to see their files in July 2014.

That’s when he discovered that MUSTANG wasn’t about to show him anything.

According to a lawsuit filed by Show-Me Cannabis and Malin this month, representatives from MUSTANG arranged for Malin to personally inspect the requested records three days later — the maximum period of time allowed by Missouri’s Sunshine Law. But when Malin arrived, he saw that vital information relating to the source of MUSTANG’s funding had been redacted. Knowing that the agency was only permitted to redact information in very rare circumstances (such as national security), Malin asked why the requested information had not been provided. MUSTANG responded only that a non-attorney employee at the state Department of Public Safety had recommended the redactions. As Malin began to photograph the redacted documents, one of the officers present demanded that he stop immediately, in direct violation of one of the Sunshine Law’s provisions expressly allowing the copying of records. Perhaps the officials thought they could intimidate Malin, 23, into dropping the matter.

They had no idea who they were dealing with.

From November 2014 to April 2015, Malin followed up with five additional Sunshine Law requests seeking insight into how MUSTANG operated. At first, Sheriff Crane responded by sending documents completely unrelated to Malin’s request, but after Malin pointed out the non-responsiveness of the documents he received, Crane simply ceased responding to Malin’s requests altogether. So now Malin and Show-Me Cannabis have sued Crane and the other members of MUSTANG whom Malin could identify (he can’t know for sure if he has a complete list, because even the names of the task force officials were redacted).

“It would be one thing if the Task Force had claimed either that it had no records matching the requests or that the law prohibited it from producing the requested records,” said Malin’s attorney David Roland. “But the Sunshine Law does not give MUSTANG the option of flatly refusing to respond to citizens’ lawful requests for open public records.” Indeed, if Malin prevails, MUSTANG could face a $5,000 fine for each willful violation of the law.

Incredibly in a state which prides itself on transparent government, the MUSTANG incident is only one example of a much broader pattern of drug task force secrecy Malin has uncovered throughout Missouri. The Northwest Missouri Interagency Team Response Operation (NITRO) drug task force, for example, responded to a phone call from Malin by pretending he had called the wrong number — before admitting to the lie after Malin persisted. After Malin emailed the Combined Ozarks Multi-jurisdictional Enforcement Team (COMET), the team copied Malin on an email — apparently by accident — outlining strategies to avoid compliance with the state’s Sunshine Law. Most outrageously, the St. Louis Metropolitan Drug Task Force responded to Malin’s request by denying that it even exists (even after Malin proved that they do in fact exist and receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money every year — see the state-generated Missouri DTF map below).

“Missouri’s drug task forces are trusted to enforce the law, but they routinely ignore the laws designed to hold them accountable to the public,” Malin said. “Missouri law gives citizens a right to know what their government is doing on their behalf. We are pursuing these cases to prove once and for all that law enforcers are not themselves above the law.”

Nearly two years into his investigations, Malin still does not know how MUSTANG obtains its funding. But he does know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that it and several other drug task forces in the state have plenty that they’re trying to hide.

[Editor’s note: This article profiles only one of five lawsuits Show-Me Cannabis has filed to force transparency on the operation of Missouri’s drug task forces. According to Aaron Malin, “The defendants have attempted to frivolously delay the cases to run up our legal fees in the hopes that we won’t be able to afford to match their taxpayer funded unlimited supply of lawyers. Folks who support this work can make a tax-deductible contribution to help us fight back: https://showmecannabis. nationbuilder.com/foundation- contribute” All freedom-loving Americans should consider supporting this righteous cause. — Ed.]