Ex-Utah Homeland Security agent faces sentencing in bath salts trafficking scheme

Booking photo for David Cole, from the Purgatory Correctional Facility, Hurricane, Washington County, Aug. 13.

Booking photo for David Cole, from the Purgatory Correctional Facility, Hurricane, Washington County, Aug. 13. (Washington County Sheriff’s Office)


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ST. GEORGE — The first of two Department of Homeland Security agents who allegedly worked in concert to sell the illicit drug known as bath salts is headed to federal prison.

David Cole, 50, of South Jordan, was sentenced Aug. 13 on a federal drug distribution conspiracy charge during a hearing held at U.S. District Court in St. George.

Cole was indicted after being implicated in a scheme that ran for at least two years starting in 2022, federal prosecutors say. The scheme ended in December 2024, when Cole was confronted by FBI agents and arrested.

The investigation began in October 2024 after a defense attorney informed the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah that Cole and Nicholas Kindle had directed the attorney's client, an informant, to take part in potentially illegal activities between the spring and early December, according to federal court records.

Read the full story at St. George News.

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