A former Albuquerque police cadet who sued the city and got a big payout is back in court. But this time she's the one in trouble. Before anyone is allowed to wear a badge in Albuquerque, there is a defined process. Applicants don't start as officers. Many begin as police cadets, an entry-level position designed to prepare them for academy training and future sworn service. To qualify, cadet applicants must meet minimum age and education requirements, submit an application, pass written testing, and undergo background screening. That screening typically includes criminal history checks, employment verification, and personal references. Applicants who advance may also be evaluated for psychological and medical fitness before entering training. On paper, the goal is simple. Identify risks early, screen out disqualifying behavior, and ensure only qualified candidates move forward. This is the process used by the Albuquerque Police Department, and departments across the country use similar pipelines. In this case, a former Albuquerque police cadet later became publicly known for filing a civil lawsuit against the city, alleging mistreatment during the cadet program. That lawsuit focused on internal conduct, training conditions, and workplace treatment, not criminal allegations. Years later, federal prosecutors filed an indictment charging that same former cadet along with another defendant with offenses related to an alleged human smuggling operation. According to the indictment, the allegations involve renting and maintaining properties that prosecutors say were used as stash houses. These are allegations, not convictions. And the case is still pending in federal court. >> Nan Zang and her husband Sanjay Kh Harana were arraigned in federal court this morning accused of running stash houses for human smuggling. Zang, who is from China, is also suing the city of Albuquerque over her firing from the police academy back in 2020 over claims that she was harassed and nicknamed the CO cadet. News3's Anolita Sapardo has details. >> He got robbed twice in 2017. I thought that the best way to help is become part of a solution. >> Nan Zang talked with us in 2021 about her dream of becoming a police officer and what went wrong. She said the problems with APD's training academy staff started almost immediately when she joined in early 2020. >> Oh, what do you say? I don't understand you. Zang who moved to the US from China said the situation only got worse as the CO 19 pandemic took hold describing how her dream quickly faded and she was forced to quit. >> They began to look at me weird and they started to I became cadet co. >> This is where the question stops being about one individual and starts being about process. Cadet background checks are largely backwardlooking. They're designed to find past convictions, documented misconduct, or known disqualifiers. What they often cannot detect are ongoing outside associations, financial incentives unrelated to policing, or future criminal conspiracies that don't yet exist. Cadet programs are also hiring pipelines. Departments are under constant pressure to recruit, retain, and staffmies. sometimes faster than systems are built to monitor long-term risk. When a former cadet later becomes the subject of a federal indictment, it doesn't automatically mean the department knew, but it does expose a hard truth. Screening is not prevention, and trust is granted long before accountability ever arrives. >> Zang filed a civil suit and another lawsuit for the city failing to produce public records about her employment. The city settled that second suit with Zang for $105,000. But now Zang is facing legal trouble of her own. Federal prosecutors say between March of 2023 and July of this year, Zang and her husband Zonj Kurana conspired with human smugglers to rent properties in Albuquerque to be used as stash houses at four locations in the city. The couple is also charged with inflating rents for units used to harbor undocumented immigrants. According to federal documents, they warned co-conspirators of law enforcement activity and continued to leasing apartments to human smugglers even after law enforcement discovered what the properties were being used for. >> This story doesn't prove that a department endorsed wrongdoing. It does show how much power and credibility institutions extend early and how limited the tools are to re-evaluate that trust later. Departments ask the public for confidence, compliance, and patience. In return, the public expects rigorous oversight before authority is granted, not just investigations after something goes wrong. That expectation isn't anti- police. It's pro-acc accountability. And cases like this don't erode trust because people talk about them. They erode trust when systems refuse to learn from them. >> It's not just the border. There was a violent shooting yesterday afternoon in Albuquerque at a stash house where there were 15 migrants there. >> When federal prosecutors use the term stash house, they aren't describing a vague concept. They're referring to residential properties allegedly used as temporary holding locations in human smuggling or trafficking networks. According to federal charging documents and similar cases, these locations are typically used to house undocumented migrants while transportation, payment, or coordination with smugglers is arranged. When allegations like this involve someone who once passed a law enforcement screening process, the concern isn't just the crime itself, it's the contrast. Cadet applicants are screened for honesty, judgment, and suitability for authority. They are evaluated for trustworthiness, not just criminal history. So when a former cadet later becomes accused of participating in an operation tied to organized crime, it raises a legitimate public question, not about guilt. That's for the courts, but about how institutions assess risk before granting access, credibility, and public trust. Federal officials say at one of those stash houses near Montgomery and Tramway, federal officials say there was a shooting at one of those stash houses near Montgomery and Tramway in September of 2024. Our cameras caught a group of men and women taking cover from the heat in a car wash as officers investigated a suspected stash house right next door. If Zang and Corana are convicted, they face 20 years in federal prison. Anna Sapardo, KRQE News3. Zang's civil lawsuit for wrongful termination from the APD Academy is set to go to trial in February of next year. >> This story doesn't prove that a department endorsed criminal behavior. What it does reveal is how early institutions extend power, credibility, and trust, and how few mechanisms exist to meaningfully re-evaluate that trust once it's granted. Police departments ask the public for confidence, compliance, and patience. They ask people to accept authority in real time, often under stress, and to trust that systems will correct themselves later if something goes wrong. In return, the public expectation is simple. Rigorous oversight before authority is issued, not just investigations after harm has already occurred. That expectation isn't anti- police. It's pro-accountability. And those two ideas are not opposites, no matter how often they're framed that way. Stories like this don't erode trust because people discuss them. They erode trust when institutions treat each case as an exception instead of a lesson. This case will now move through federal court. The allegations will be tested by evidence, not commentary or headlines. But the larger question remains not about one former cadet, but about how much scrutiny truly happens before a badge is ever earned. Because once trust is broken, no training manual can fix it. Thin blue lies, baby.