The Associated Press
SANTA FE (AP) -- Gang members are threatening Santa Fe police officers and their families as a result of a recent drug bust, Santa Fe Police Chief Beverly Lennen said.
Police consider the threats to be “very credible” and are taking “extreme caution” during routine disturbance calls and traffic stops, Lennen said.
Officers may not be as easygoing during routine encounters with the public in the next few weeks, she said.
“We don’t want the public to take this as a lack of respect or anything like that,” Lennen said. “Unfortunately, we have to take this recent information very seriously, and we ask the public to please bear with us.”
The department’s top priorities will still be public service and protection efforts, she said.
Citing safety concerns for her officers, Lennen refused to name the two officers being threatened or cite the specific arrests that led to the threats.
“Within the last two weeks, our officers made what seemed like a very routine drug arrest,” Lennen said. “Since that time, we have received and verified what we consider very credible information that (the drug bust) has brought the ire of a known significant Albuquerque-area gang.”
She said the two uniformed officers who made the bust were acting within the scope of their duties and were not aware of the magnitude of the transaction they apparently foiled.
Lennen would not name the Albuquerque gang making the threats.