Chris McDonald isn’t a guy who loves attention. As a commander for the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and former undercover narcotics investigator, he’s used to operating behind the scenes.
When it comes to highlighting the work of his team, however, he doesn’t mind shining the spotlight.
McDonald oversees what’s arguably one of the most difficult roles in law enforcement: sexual crimes against children.
As head of DCI’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) division, he and his team of nine agents and affiliates are faced with a mounting number of crimes each year.
Online tips alone continue to skyrocket every year, all of which he vets before sending along to an agent. In 2023, the agency received around 800 tips, which snowballed to about 1,108 last year.
In turn, they’ve saved hundreds of young victims from being exploited, including about 20 children last year alone. McDonald credits his team, who he said are some of the most talented people in law enforcement who show up every day to do the hard job of investigating these horrific crimes.
It’s tough work, he said, but it’s also the most “righteous mission” he’s undertaken in his 24 years of law enforcement.
The motivating factor for he and his team are the victims, who keep them going despite the difficult nature of the work that takes a toll on all of them.
“Motivation is easy to find knowing every day there’s a child attached to these cases,” he said. “But somewhere in there it kind of breaks your heart, too, and that’s really hard for investigators to live with sometimes.”
One ‘Huge Win’
One of the largest and most far-reaching investigations DCI was involved with concluded with a Bangladeshi national being charged in Alaska federal court in 2022 for operating a child exploitation enterprise involving hundreds of teens from around the United States and world.
That included at least six minor victims in Wyoming
Zobaidul Amin, 24, was arrested where he lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in what the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the time called one of its “most prolific and malicious sextortion schemes” to date, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska.
In Wyoming, McDonald and the ICAC helped investigate the cases here. At the time, he called it a remarkable collaboration of law enforcement.
“I have a hard time expressing how rare it is to get all those moving parts to come together,” McDonald told Cowboy State Daily then. “We put a good case together in Wyoming to help the Alaskan FBI, and they did great police work.”
McDonald said his team was aware of six minor victims in Wyoming, although he suspects that true number is higher. He also said it was really frustrating to know the identity of the alleged perpetrator and not be able to pursue charges internationally.
“This guy has just victimized kids in Wyoming on a long-term basis,” he said. “It’s a huge win to bring him to justice and get a sense of closure for the victims and their families and our team.”
Call To Duty
It’s also the reason McDonald was drawn to law enforcement in the first place.
As trite as it might sound, he acknowledged it was this compulsion to serve that attracted him to the military right out of high school.
McDonald, who grew up in Gillette, had been a 17-year-old high school senior when the first bombs rained down over Kuwait in January 1991 as part of Operation Desert Storm.
Today at 51, he still remembers the impact it had on him watching war unfold on his television screen as CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer reported from Baghdad.
“For the first time in my life, war was real,” he said. “It really spoke to me.”
It also changed the course of his life.
Up until that moment, McDonald had been planning to go to college on a baseball scholarship. A standout player at Campbell County High School, he had multiple offers on the table.
Then duty, and tradition, called.
McDonald comes from a family with a rich military tradition with at least one member serving in every major military conflict dating back to the time his family immigrated to the U.S. As such, he didn’t think twice about putting his own dreams on hold to serve his country.
His plan had been to join the Army, but when the recruiter didn’t show up for their appointment, he signed on with the Marine who poked his head out into the hallway and saw McDonald sitting there.
McDonald went into the intelligence field, where he worked as a morse code operator before moving into human intelligence, and ultimately, earning rank of sergeant.
After serving four years, he moved back to Gillette and took a job with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office but left after two years to make more cash in the coal mines.
Shifting Priorities
McDonald jokes that he thought he had life figured out back then, and thought money was the way to go.
Then 9/11 happened, and once again McDonald’s priorities were rearranged. He said he felt compelled to “put on the greens” only to be told he was too old to re-enlist.
At the time, he and his wife Stacie, who he’s been with since high school, had just had a daughter, and McDonald again found himself at a crossroads. Though he was making good money at the mine, he wasn’t happy.
During an overnight shift, he did some soul searching and realized he wanted to go back into law enforcement right around the same time he was being coaxed back into uniform by former Campbell County Sheriff Bill Pownall.
He never looked back.
He worked as a deputy before becoming a task force office for DCI as an undercover narcotics investigator. His five-year plan when he started was to shut down the drug war in Wyoming, until he got a hefty dose of reality on the job.
Despite not stopping it entirely, he had some notable arrests, including a100-plus person indictment involving Mexican drug cartels and breaking up meth labs, among other notable investigations and arrests.
McDonald enjoyed the nature of undercover work and dealing with informants, and occasionally, being able to help someone go down a different path.
“I know it sounds super cliche, but when you get to actually help someone change their life, then that’s a success in law enforcement,” he said.
This is especially true when it comes to helping children, he said.
And though he never planned on doing this type of work, when the job at DCI opened in 2019, he applied for and took the ICAC commander position. The challenge excited him, and he realized he excelled in a leadership position.
Left, Chris McDonald on one of the many rigorous group hikes he took while attending the FBI National Academy in Virginia. Right, to complete the FBI National Academy, attendees have to complete The Yellow Brick Road, a 10k run with a 3-mile obstacle course, in seven minutes or less. (Courtesy Chris McDonald) 
Chris McDonald, then a teen, received the rank of sergeant in the Marines. (Courtesy Chris McDonald) 
Chris McDonald and roommate celebrate a successful first day at the FBI National Academy. (Courtesy Chris McDonald)
Back From Quantico
His skills, likewise, caught the eye of DCI Director Ronnie Jones, who hand-picked McDonald to attend the FBI’s elite National Academy Program this past fall.
The 10-week program at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, includes law enforcement from across the United States and 174 countries who attend certification courses and undergo a rigorous physical fitness program.
It’s a highly selective program that only 1% of senior law enforcement throughout the country and world are selected to attend.
Jones told Cowboy State Daily that it was a great honor to be able to send one of its own to the FBI Academy.
“Team Leader McDonald excelled at the FBI Academy and represented the state of Wyoming and the Division of Criminal Investigation in a distinguished manner,” he said. “We are very proud of this accomplishment and are glad to have him back to work putting his training to good use.”
McDonald called it the opportunity of a lifetime.
Testing ‘Old-Man Knees’
At Quantico, McDonald lived in the dorms with other law enforcement agents from all over the world, took classes in intelligence, counter terrorism, behavioral analysis among other topics and underwent physical training that tested both his ego and “old-man knees,” he joked.
To complete the program, attendees also must successfully complete the The Yellow Brick Road made famous by FBI agent Clarice Starling in “Silence of the Lambs,” which is a 10K run with a 3-mile obstacle course that participants have to complete in seven minutes or less.
Not to be outdone, McDonald’s son, William “Finn,” mirrored his father’s accomplishment last March by earning a fifth-place finish at the 26.2-mile Bataan Memorial Death March in New Mexico that he ran with his fellow teammates from the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the University of Wyoming.
Along with the physical and mental aspect of the program, McDonald said he appreciated meeting law enforcement from all over the world, including from war-worn countries like Ukraine and Palestine, where the mass scale of terrorism is an everyday reality.
“That was a real eye-opener for me,” McDonald said.
He also did a lot of hiking and attended presentations from NYPD’s Special Operations Unit and returned with a wealth of information and experience, particularly his connections with law enforcement all over the country and world.
That Rural Guy
Many of his classmates had a hard time getting their heads around the rural nature of Wyoming, and the fact that a person might drive six hours just to work a case.
One key takeaway for McDonald was that although every country faces different challenges and goes about procedures in various ways, all law enforcement agencies from Wyoming to the Maldives are dealing with the same type of issues — including recruiting and retention — and there’s a sense that everyone is in it together, he said.
McDonald is happy to be back and credited his ICAC group for keeping things running “smooth as butter” in his stead.
Unfortunately, they are as busy as ever as cyber tips and cases continue to come in daily.
“Sometimes it feels like a revolving door because you don’t always see the end of a case or the resolution,” he said. “But it’s not hard to get motivated knowing you’ve stopped that kind of abuse.”
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
