Ex-Tesla employee says “Gigafactory” workers linked to Mexican drug gang

A former Tesla employee alleges that workers at the electric car maker’s Nevada battery factory had connections to a Mexican drug trafficking ring, and that he was fired for raising the issue with management. 

Former security employee Karl Hansen cites the potential trafficking among a number of problems he said took place at Tesla’s so-called Gigafactory, the company’s massive production facility in Sparks, Nevada. He also claims Tesla retaliated against workers who reported shady activities, hacked into employees’ cell phones and computers, and ignored the theft of $37 million worth of raw materials from the factory.

Tesla did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

Stuart Meissner, a lawyer for Hansen, said his client made the allegations on August 9 in a “whistleblower” complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hansen is the second ex-Tesla employee to submit a whistleblower tip to the agency. Former Tesla technician Martin Tripp, who is in a legal battle with the company, has also filed a complaint with the securities regulator. 

Hansen was employed in Tesla’s “internal security department and its investigations division,” according to Meissner and is retired from the U.S. Army Special Investigations Command.    

Meissner, who released a summary of Hansen’s complaint on Thursday, represents both men. 

Among Hansen’s allegations:

• While at Tesla, he claims to have “corroborated connections” between company employees and members of a Mexican drug cartel. Although he notified his three supervisors at the car maker, Tesla discouraged him from going to law enforcement.

• The Drug Enforcement Administration allegedly notified Tesla on May 24 that several Tesla employees “may be participants in a narcotics trafficking ring involving the sale of significant quantities of cocaine and possibly crystal methamphetamine at the Gigafactory on behalf of a Mexican drug cartel from Sonora Mexico.”

• The Tesla workers alleged to have links with drug dealer kept working at Tesla at least until Hansen was fired on July 16.

In his lawyer’s statement, Hansen also claims that $37 million worth of materials were stolen from Tesla between January and June of this year, that he was told not to report the theft and that a Tesla employee who did so was fired. He also claims that Tesla wiretapped employees and installed “specialized router equipment” to monitor their cell phone conversations.

” I never expected that my employment with such a major public company would lead to uncovering such issues, and am disturbed by Tesla’s highly unusual response to those like me who investigated them,” Hansen said in a statement. “I am also very disturbed by Tesla’s failure to respect the privacy of its own employees.Hansen said in a statement.”

Hansen, who says he was fired in retaliation for reporting misdeeds, went public to “encourage other whistleblowers to come forward,” according to his attorney’s release.

SEC investigations are typically conducted in private.

“This is somewhat of an unusual circumstance in that the client specifically requested that I make public not only his name but his attachment to the SEC,” Meissner told CBS MoneyWatch.

“These are material events, these are not minor events, from a public company, and part of a company’s responsibility is to give material information to the shareholders,” he said.