Two ex-U.S. drug enforcement employees convicted over strip club ties

By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two long-time employees of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration were convicted on Thursday of charges that they lied about their operation of a New Jersey strip club during national security background checks.

David Polos, a former assistant special agent-in-charge with the DEA, and Glen Glover, telecommunications specialist with the agency, were each found guilty by a Manhattan federal jury of one count of concealing their ties to the Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge strip club, in South Hackensack, about 13 miles (20 kms)from New York City.

Jurors also convicted Polos for lying about having a relationship with any foreign nationals, after prosecutors accused him of having an extramarital affair with a Brazilian dancer who had entered the United States illegally.

The verdict came just over a year after Polos, 51, and Glover, 45, were arrested on charges that they had made false statements by concealing they had worked at and were part-owners of the Twins Plus club.

The club features scantily clad and sometimes topless female dancers, including some who engage in sexual acts with patrons and staff, and many who are illegal, undocumented immigrants, prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors said the men hid their involvement during 2011 background checks reviewing whether any outside employment could put them near criminal activity or at risk of being blackmailed.

Polos once supervised the New York Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Strike Force, and was once also Glover’s boss, prosecutors said.

Defense lawyers said their clients did not disclose their ties to the strip club because it was just an investment, not a place of employment.

But prosecutors said Polos and Glover were heavily involved in the club’s management, working there regularly and dealing with employment, advertising and back-office matters, even during DEA work hours.

The defendants were also aware that many dancers were in the country illegally, prosecutors said.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Additional reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)