Michael Kaiser Gets 20 Years in Prison #OperationBadNickname

Michael Kaiser, one of the defendants arrested in a Longmont Police Department methamphetamine bust last August, was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison, to be followed by five years of mandatory parole, for racketeering under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act.

Boulder District Court Judge Patrick Butler also sentenced Kaiser to 16 years for conspiracy to distribute between 450 grams and 1 kilogram of methamphetamine, a sentence to run concurrently with the one Butler ordered for the racketeering felony, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Ken Kupfner.

The 41-year-old Kaiser, who originally had been charged with 33 felonies, had pleaded guilty on June 4 to the charges for which he was sentenced on Friday.

Kaiser and his wife, Geraldine Vodicka, were a Loveland couple at the center of what police called their Operation Bad Nickname investigation, which resulted in the arrests of more than 30 people accused of being involved in a methamphetamine-distribution ring.

This past Wednesday, a Boulder County District Court jury found Vodicka guilty of seven felony charges, including violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and five counts of conspiracy to distribute various weights of a controlled substance and possession of more than one kilogram of the illegal drug.

Also found guilty by that jury on Wednesday was Terry Romero, on five felonies, including a special-offender status, a violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute between 25 and 450 grams of a controlled substance.

Sentencing hearings for Romero and Vodicka are scheduled for Oct. 24.

Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said Operation Bad Nickname was a six-month multi-agency drug investigation into the sales of narcotics in Longmont, Loveland and northern Colorado. He said large quantities of methamphetamine, weapons and other dangerous drugs were recovered during the investigation. Several of the other defendants arrested in the meth-ring bust have also pleaded guilty and have received sentences or are awaiting sentencing.