For the first time, we're hearing some of the evidence that helped investigators break a crack cocaine ring in Omaha.

Advertisement Operation Purple Haze sweeps Omaha streets with wiretaps Share Shares Copy Link Copy

For nine months, investigators patrolled the streets of Omaha and listened to drug deals taking place.The officers listened to wiretapped conversations of Omaha’s crack dealers who talked in code.Video: I-Team: Wiretaps led to arrests in cocaine ringWhen Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Kevin Hytrek hears the special word, the reference to a “shoe,” he knows a drug deal is about to happen.“First of all, you know, most people buy two shoes together, but he’s talking about a shoe and then he talks about a quantity of the shoe. There you realize that there’s something,” said Hytrek.The wiretaps are part of Operation Purple Haze, a sweeping investigation that dismantled a drug operation in Omaha. The recordings have proven to be key pieces of evidence in the courtroom, helping prosecutors put more than a dozen known gang members in prison.“This is real time. This is when it’s happening, it’s when it’s occurring, it’s part of the process,” said Douglas County Attorney Don Klein.In Operation Purple Haze -- a drug takedown operation coordinated by the FBI task force with local law enforcement -- hundreds of hours of phone calls led to solid surveillance of people buying crack. The wiretaps produced a list of suspected dealers and provided investigators with rare and valuable intelligence of two rival street gangs working together to sell drugs in Omaha.“That was a surprise to us, that's not something we know about at the beginning of the investigation,” said Hytrek.That level of success has law enforcement running through a revolving door, asking for wiretap warrants at an unprecedented pace. While demand is high, judges aren’t handing them out like candy.“Even if we have probable cause, we just can't get a wiretap. We have to show that other investigative techniques other manners that police and law enforcement normally use in the course of an investigation have been exhausted,” said Kleine.The wiretap reportedly is a tool of last resort for law enforcement hoping to catch criminals in the act. Prosecutor Jeff Lux, who took Operation Purple Haze to trial, knows the wiretaps need to deliver.“If you can't give the judge examples of what you thought you'd be intercepting, the judge has the authority to shut that wire down early and that's to protect the rights of the,” said Lux.“This is a covert action by law enforcement for the sole purpose of gathering information to prosecute you, and that I think is an affront to the constitution,” said defense attorney Jessica Douglas.Douglas said there are serious fourth amendment consequences from wiretaps, and even though there are instructions to police on what they can and can’t listen to, like calls to an attorney, some of those privileged conversations still get caught.“You can't un-hear what you heard. So even if all the safeguards are being followed and the live listeners say,’Oh, wait, this is an attorney call,’ they've already heard what's been said. You can't un-hear that,” said Douglas.More often than not for prosecutors, the wiretaps pay off and deputy county attorney Jim Masteller, who also tried the Operation Purple Haze case, said success is almost certain when he plays the evidence for a jury.“You can’t get better evidence than that,” said Masteller.Faced with peers hearing their calls, all of those arrested took plea deals. Only one defendant, Darnell Russell, tried his luck with the jury.“I was going to see how you wanted to do this,” said Russell.It took the jury less than two hours to find him guilty.