BLM special agent is focus of investigations

Dan Love, a controversial law-enforcement agent for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is the subject of several investigations into his actions as special-agent-in-charge of BLM activities in Utah and Nevada.
Most recently, Congressman Jason Chaffetz alleges that Love may have destroyed files, withheld documents, and coached witnesses in order to avoid a Congressional investigation. Chaffetz asked the Department of Interior (DOI) Inspector General to investigate the allegations.
Love is also the focus of a DOI Inspector General report that states he used his position to gain perks at the annual Burning Man Festival in Nevada.
The report states that costs charged by the BLM to the organizers of the festival increased dramatically after Love was placed in charge of law enforcement at the event.
In 2011, event organizers paid the BLM $1.45 million for the event. By 2016, the BLM charge to the fast-growing festival had risen to $4.4 million.
Changes have been made in the past year, and event organizers state that the amount paid to the BLM will drop for the 2017 Burning Man Festival. Burning Man will take place in late August and early September.
Love has been the subject of complaints for several years regarding work in San Juan County.
Love oversaw Operation Cerberus, the undercover operation that resulted in the June 2009 antiquities raids in Blanding. The raids were made by dozens of heavily armed federal agents amid allegations of an excessive show of force by the agency.
The massive and expensive raids resulted in just a handful of convictions in federal court, partially the result of suicides by an informant and several of the accused.
Love was the special agent in charge during the 2012 standoff at the Bundy Ranch in Mesquite, NV. The most recent investigations threaten to undermine the federal trials on the standoff, which are beginning this week.
In 2014, several law enforcement officials, including San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge, complained about Love’s tactics. The officials state Love’s actions and attitude are detrimental to the relationship between the federal agencies and local law enforcement.
Love was removed as Special Agent in 2016 but appeared to receive a promotion to a similar position for BLM activities across the nation.

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