Police Uncover Tangled Crime Web Men Arrested After Standoff Are Considered To Be Key Figures In Variety Of Crimes

A series of crimes involving pipe bombs, drugs, extortion, stolen cars and $750,000 in missing bank deposits is being tied to three men and two juveniles.

Authorities said Tuesday they are beginning to sort out the various crimes after two of the suspects were arrested following a five-hour standoff with police Friday.

Police and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms found a loaded sawed-off shotgun in an apartment at E45 Eighth after the standoff ended peacefully.

David Delfs, 39, and John L. Calvert, 35, were indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on federal firearms charges.

Their associate, Robert J. Adams, 24, was indicted on two counts of possessing pipe bombs.

Delfs confessed to using LSD and methamphetamine just before his arrest, and Calvert had been using heroin, ATF Agent Steve Gunderson testified at a detention hearing.

Both Calvert and Delfs have extensive criminal records.

Probation officials recommended that Calvert, who has five children staying with friends, should be released from jail pending trial. He is being treated for bone cancer.

But at a detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno, Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks objected.

“We don’t need individuals walking around Spokane using instruments of death, taking LSD,” Hicks argued.

“Your Honor, it’s unfortunate that Mr. Calvert has bone cancer. But that bone cancer does not prevent him from pulling a trigger or a pin on a pipe bomb.”

The federal magistrate ruled that all three will be held in jail without bond until trial.

“They are involved in a criminal organization together, and we’re still investigating various aspects,” Hicks said after the hearing.

ATF agents have information suggesting Calvert, who has lived in Stevens County, supplied Adams with two pipe bombs, Hicks said.

Adams was arrested Dec. 30 after Spokane attorney Howard Nichols called police and told them Adams had been shot in the leg.

As the two were en route to the Public Safety Building, police pulled over Adams’ car. They found his leg wound wrapped in duct tape and discovered a pipe bomb in the glove compartment.

A second bomb later was found in Adams’ home at E4502 Fourth. Agents said Adams claimed he needed the pipe bombs to protect himself from “the Mexican Mafia.”

Nichols, now suspended from the practice of law, was one of two dozen defendants arrested in connection with the Operation Doughboy cocaine ring. He is out of jail and awaiting sentencing.

Much of the cocaine in that case came from Mexican drug suppliers.

Authorities say they have no information tying Delfs, Calvert or Adams to the Doughboy investigation.

After Delfs and Calvert were arrested last Friday, authorities recovered $750,000 in negotiable checks from a late-model, stolen Acura that had been in their possession.

That car was one of at least six vehicles stolen in recent weeks from health club parking lots by thieves, possibly juveniles, who stole keys from lockers inside the clubs.

Two teenagers have been arrested in connection with those thefts.

In some instances, the thieves also used the owners’ credit cards to buy gasoline.

Before the checks were found, the FBI had been investigating unsuccessful attempts in the Spokane area to cash the drafts, said FBI Supervisor Jeffrey John.

U.S. Bank officials reported the checks missing after the attempts to cash some of them, John said. Their disappearance of checks is being investigated. The checks disappeared after being picked up by a bank courier at branches in Lewiston, Pullman and Rosalia, Hicks said.

The federal prosecutor didn’t elaborate, but said there were extortion attempts to exchange the checks for a “finder’s fee.”