STATE POLICE CALL DEA ACTIONS IN DRUG BUST 'EXTREMELY UNETHICAL'

State Police say federal DEA agents hindered a major cocaine bust when they
"kidnapped" an informant from New Hampshire the day it was scheduled, locked
him in a room at the Cross Border Task Force in Lowell, Mass., and pressured
him to lure the deal down there.

The informant, who was not under arrest, finally "escaped" through an
emergency door more than four hours later and ran to a nearby parking lot
where New Hampshire police picked him up, according to a letter of complaint
written by New Hampshire State Police Sgt. Michael H. Hambrook.

Hambrook said Drug Enforcement Administration agents had refused to let the
informant leave even after telephone calls from authorities in New Hampshire
saying he was immediately needed by them.

More than a dozen officers were standing by in New Hampshire to carry out
the bust at a residence that had already been wired for sound and video. The
bust ultimately fell through.

"The conduct of these agents' (sic) places this investigation in jeopardy,
is extremely unethical and borders on criminal. I believe the facts laid out
in this letter justify an investigation by the DEA's Internal Affairs Unit,"
Hambrook wrote.

Some experts say the complaint may be just a case of rivalry. And State
Police and the DEA both insist they are continuing to work side by side
every day in spite of the internal affairs probe.

But Manchester attorney Jon Meyer said the allegations raise serious
concerns about the war on drugs, especially since police agencies often
split cash and other assets seized from drug dealers.

"With this type of competition, justice becomes less important than who gets
the prestige and financial benefit of large arrests," Meyer said.

In Sgt. Hambrook's complaint against the DEA, a copy of which was obtained
anonymously by the New Hampshire Sunday News, he indicated the battle wasn't
over cash or prestige.

Hambrook said he learned that DEA agents were upset that the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development, whose agent initiated the cocaine case,
has law enforcement authority.

"And that this may be one of the reasons that they are so angry that this
seizure may be made without DEA being in charge of the investigation,"
Hambrook wrote.

HUD Special Agent Ed Redmond, who helped coordinate the drug case, had
previously asked the DEA to participate, but was turned down. The DEA was
working with the same unidentified paid informant on a different drug case,
Hambrook said in the complaint letter.

"I don't know why DEA has taken such outrageous steps to interfere with this
case. However, I believe that if (these) actions are allowed to continue
then the safety of all the police officers involved as well as that of (the
informant) is in jeopardy," Hambrook wrote.

Hambrook's supervisor, Lt. Michael G. Hureau agreed. In a memo asking State
Police Col. Gary Sloper to forward the letter to DEA headquarters as an
official complaint, Hureau wrote:

"In my past 29 years in law enforcement, I have never observed such improper
and deceitful behavior by any police officers. The actions of these agents
not only hindered an ongoing investigation, but were totally self-serving,
and in my opinion, border on criminal activity."

John Gartland, special agent in charge of DEA's New England field division,
said he wouldn't confirm or deny that an internal investigation is under
way.

"We get along very well with New Hampshire State Police. We have a very
close working relationship, in fact we have a task force assigned to work
together on a daily basis . . . It is my understanding that we have a solid
relationship that is going to continue as we do with every other agency,"
Gartland said.

State Police Maj. Barry Hunter said: "The DEA agreed to look into the
matter. I'm confident their inquiry into the matter will be thorough with an
explanation as to what occurred and that there will be a resolution. We
continue to remain actively involved with drug cases with the DEA on a daily
basis," Hunter said.

Michael Zerega, spokesman for the HUD Inspector General's Office, said
specially trained HUD agents are deputized by the U.S. Marshal's Service to
help enforce the Controlled Substances Act.

"We see ourselves as another source of assistance to local law enforcement
to help them with the battle against drugs, guns and gangs in public
housing," Zerega said, declining to comment on the complaint against DEA.

Lowell Police Chief Edward F. Davis III said the Cross Border Initiative in
Lowell is a federally funded task force with many state and local police and
DEA agents working together.

One of his officers, Detective Peter Kelleher, was assigned to the task
force headquarters the day mentioned in the complaint. Of the allegations
against DEA agents, Chief Davis said, "I really don't know enough about it
to speak intelligently. I was in the drug business for a long time. Often
times there are disagreements and misunderstandings between units trying to
accomplish the same thing. That is probably where this lies."

Hambrook said at first the dispute appeared to be a misunderstanding so he
tried several times to call DEA Agent Jim Sullivan, who is in charge of the
task force. Unable to reach him, Hambrook relayed several messages to
Sullivan.

"I have never heard from Agent Sullivan to this day," Hambrook wrote.

The day before the planned bust, after months of ground work by authorities
in New Hampshire, Sullivan asked the informant to lure the bust to
Massachusetts, Hambrook wrote.

"(HUD) Agent Redmond said he spoke with (DEA) Agent (Bob) Kew who told him
he was embarrassed about what was going on and blamed (DEA) Agent Sullivan
for everything," Hambrook wrote.

Kew told Redmond that Sullivan was trying to get the informant to bring the
case into Lowell so the Cross Border Initiative could make the arrest,
Hambrook wrote.

Assured by the informant that he wasn't working for the DEA, New Hampshire
authorities prepared to move on the case the following day.

But that morning, Agent Kew and Agent Ed Mastracola of the DEA/CBI picked up
the informant and took him to Lowell. The informant was told he was needed
for a separate drug investigation. He was placed in a locked room, Hambrook
wrote.

Hambrook said Lowell Police Officer Kelleher was at the task force
headquarters when the informant started banging on the door in the room
where he was being held.

The informant asked if he could leave and Kelleher said no, that he would
have to wait for Agent Kew to return, Hambrook wrote.

The informant is never named in the complaint, and is referred to as the
"CI" for confidential informant, or as "it."

At one point, when the informant insisted he needed to go back to New
Hampshire for the other case, "Agent Kew told the (informant) not to worry
that they were the Federal Government and that they oversee all drug cases
in the United States.

"Agent Kew told the (informant) that the State Troopers have to go through
DEA to get these cases done so that it would end up with the DEA anyway and
for the (informant) not to worry."

Later on Redmond called Kelleher by phone and said he needed the informant
back in New Hampshire for the bust, but Kelleher said he didn't know what
was going on and didn't want to get involved.

"Redmond told Kelleher 'Pete you kidnapped the (informant)' and Kelleher
responded 'Yea I know but it wasn't me,'" Hambrook wrote.

Hambrook said he contacted then First Assistant U.S. Attorney David
Vicinanzo, whose office had been working on the drug investigation, that
Vicinanzo called DEA Agent Kew and asked if the informant was there.

Kew said yes. Vicinanzo said the informant was needed in New Hampshire, but
was told to wait 20 minutes to talk with Agent Sullivan, Hambrook wrote.

Sullivan eventually arrived at the task force headquarters in Lowell and
told the informant to wait for word on the drug bust he was working on in
New Hampshire, Hambrook wrote.

By cell phone, the informant then called Redmond and said he was free to
leave. Lt. Hureau and another trooper went to Lowell to pick him up, but
they couldn't locate him.

After they waited for about 10 minutes in the task force parking lot,
Mastracola came out and asked them to come inside to meet with Sullivan,
Hambrook wrote.

Hambrook gave the following scenario:

"(The informant) said that when the N.H. Troopers arrived Agent Sullivan
told him to get out of the room and to go down to the 'smoking area'" with
two detectives watching him.

"The (informant) said 'it' felt like 'it' was in jail and not free to go."
And said there was an emergency exit door marked to indicate an alarm would
sound if opened.

"When the opportunity arose 'it' pushed open the door and ran away. The
(informant) then called Agent Redmond and told him that 'it' had escaped and
wanted to be picked up.

". . .I called Lt. Hureau and told him the (informant) had escaped and was
waiting for a ride . . . (State Police) then left CBI and picked up
(informant.)

"(The informant) told me that after 'it' escaped 'it' received several calls
from (DEA) Agents Kew and Sullivan trying to get (informant) to come back to
CBI offices. . .

"The entire time this incident was unfolding I had . . . officers standing
by waiting for the (informant) to return," Hambrook wrote. Hambrook said DEA
agents continued to contact the informant for several days afterward,
encouraging him to come back and work for them.

"Mastracola told the (informant) that . . . Agent Redmond cannot pay as much
as DEA. Mastracola asked (the informant) to come back to CBI to work for DEA
and not New Hampshire because they cannot pay as much."

On Friday, New Hampshire's chief federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Paul
Gagnon said: "I'm aware of an incident that occurred involving a serious
disagreement between State Police and the DEA."

All parties agreed the matter should be referred to the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Office of Professional Responsibility for an impartial
investigation, but Gagnon said that review could take some time.

"My understanding of what occurred would not indicate criminal activity on
the part of any federal or state law enforcement personnel, but the Office
of Professional Responsibility will do an independent investigation. They
will look into all aspects of the matter," Gagnon said.

Keith Lohmann, assistant director of New Hampshire Police Standards and
Training Council, formerly worked at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Concord
where he helped coordinate various law enforcement task forces.

Lohmann said he hadn't heard specifically about the State Police complaint
against the DEA.

"Is there institutional rivalry occasionally in law enforcement? The answer
is yes. Part of the process in building an esprit de corps within an agency
is doing that, but if you are not very careful you sometimes can create an
us-versus-them situation," Lohmann said.

Lohmann said complaints serious enough for one agency to seek an internal
affairs investigation of the behavior of officers in another agency are
extremely rare however, but have the potential to be very dangerous.

"We are fortunate to have in New Hampshire a single police academy where all
of the agencies train together. That is relatively rare nationwide, but is
something I feel minimizes these sorts of things. What we see may be very
well less than elsewhere," Lohmann said.

How to limit such rivalry isn't directly addressed in police training, he
said, and the council has no authority over federal agents.

"We certainly stress the fact that our job is to get the job done. Whenever
you get into one of these turf battles, you have to wonder if we are
achieving the mission, which is to get the job done," he said.

Lohmann said seizing drug assets to help fight the war on drugs is an issue.

"When federal forfeiture came into existence in the 1980s, there were some
well-publicized abuses by agencies, though not locally, of choosing cases
based on that. The whole issue of forfeitures complicates (drug
enforcement)," Lohmann said.

Intense rivalry can be dangerous, he said.

"When you have undercover operations that are dangerous by their nature, you
want to do make sure everybody is playing off the same sheet of music. If
not, that's how people get hurt," Lohmann said.

Law enforcement disputes are not helpful to the cause, he said.

"It takes everybody's eyes off the ball . . . The job is to get the bad guys
off the street. However that happens, everybody should be in favor of it,"
Lohmann said.

Attorney Meyer said if an informant was illegally detained, he might have a
civil action for false imprisonment, but it's a claim unlikely to be
brought. Damages in such a case, if successful, would probably not be
substantial, he said.

"What is the likelihood this guy is going to want to assert his rights? That
would get him into the limelight he wouldn't want to be in. People who can't
afford exposure are the most vulnerable to having their rights violated,"
Meyer said.

The war on drugs is big business for the law enforcement community, Meyer
said.

"And in any type of business enterprise, you get into disputes over who gets
credit and who has the authority.

"It's unfortunate when the criminal justice system is driven by
considerations of turf and prestige and of seizure of money and assets
rather than by impartial considerations of justice," Meyer said.