COCAINE TIPS TURN OUT TO BE A REAL SNOW JOB

DALLAS -- Nearly half of all purported cocaine Dallas police seized last
year was finely crushed Sheetrock, while one-fourth of the methamphetamine
turned out to be composed of gypsum, the main ingredient in Sheetrock,
court records show.

Dallas police admitted last week that they paid a confidential informant
$200,000 for information leading to dozens of drug busts only to find out
later that some of the confiscated substances were fake. At the time,
police Chief Terrell Bolton said he didn't know what the drugs were made of.

Forensic testing has cast doubt on at least 24 Dallas police narcotics
cases, according to information obtained by the Dallas Morning News through
interviews and court records.

The cases are first-degree felony drug-delivery charges involving at least
18 defendants in which lab tests have shown that little or no illegal drugs
were found in almost 700 pounds of seized evidence.

In those cases, less-reliable field tests showed that the substances were
drugs. If convicted, those defendants could have faced from five years to
life in prison.

The cases have raised questions about Dallas police officers' use of paid
confidential drug informants, prompted an internal investigation, and
spurred police to revise their drug-evidence procedures.

Dallas police spokeswoman Janice Houston says drugs are now submitted for
forensic testing as soon as they are stored in the police property room.

Last year, Dallas narcotics officers seized more than 1,400 pounds of
substances thought to be cocaine during drug raids and undercover buys,
according to department statistics.

But when the substances were tested by the district attorney's office for
court cases, more than 660 pounds turned out to be pure gypsum or contained
trace amounts of cocaine.

For methamphetamine seizures, 22 of more than 100 pounds turned out to be
mostly Sheetrock, with lab results pending on an additional 32 pounds of
suspect speed.

Two cases involving counterfeit drugs were cocaine seizures that Dallas
police and prosecutors touted as record-setting busts.

Court records show that the same Dallas narcotics officers, relying on drug
deals set up or carried out by confidential informants, made the arrests.

One of the busts, which netted 150 pounds of a substance that later turned
out not to be cocaine, was made with help from a paid confidential
informant in July. Dallas police said it was one of the largest drug busts
in Dallas County law enforcement history.

The Hispanic day laborer charged with the crime was jailed in lieu of $1
million bail. Months later, after his charges were called into question, he
was released from jail on a personal recognizance bond that required only
his signature. His case is pending.

The district attorney's office so far has identified 10 drug-delivery cases
filed by Dallas police in which the seized evidence didn't contain any
illegal drugs.

Prosecutors have found 14 pending cases in which the seized evidence
contained so-called "low-quantity" amounts of drugs or amounts that were
too small to quantify, said Steve Tokoly, who oversees all felony trial
prosecutions for the district attorney's office.

Of the 18 defendants identified by records and defense attorneys, all have
Hispanic surnames and only two have prior felony convictions, both of which
involved drugs, according to Dallas County records.

Bolton and his command staff declined to comment to the newspaper late last
week about the latest information on the 24 cases.