REPORT: DEA INFORMANT PROGRAM FLAWED

Dozens of drug enforcement cases nationwide have been dismissed,
plea-bargained or threatened with reversal because of the U.S. Justice
Department's abysmal handling of its undercover informant program,
according to an internal report, court documents and interviews.

Officials in the Drug Enforcement Administration and federal prosecutors
failed the public when they ignored repeated warnings about an unreliable
informant for more than 12 years, DEA investigators concluded in a report
released under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Because the DEA had no system for tracking informants, prosecutors kept
using its most prolific operative, unaware of his pattern of lying under
oath and other crimes, according to the report, based on a yearlong
investigation.

Prosecutors in Florida, South Carolina, Missouri and Colorado have
dismissed criminal charges against at least 26 people who had been charged
with dealing drugs.

In Los Angeles, a plea bargain allowed a five-time felon facing another
prosecution to walk out of jail three months ago.

Misconduct Unreported

The DEA failed to turn over internal records to the defense in criminal
prosecutions, as required under federal law. The DEA also did not reveal
the key informant's misconduct, as required by law.

"With the DEA, it is a case of government run amok with nobody watching,"
said Terry Rearick, chief investigator for the Los Angeles federal public
defender. "And when they got caught, they just cut deals and plea bargains
with people to make them go away."

The DEA acknowledged that drug agents and prosecutors failed to disclose
problems involving informant Andrew Chambers in many of the 280 cases he
worked on, jeopardizing convictions dating back to 1984. The agency paid
Chambers about $2 million in taxpayer money.

Some federal prosecutors, angry at not being told of the misconduct,
refused to file charges against some suspects arrested by the DEA.

Michael Chapman, the DEA's spokesman, said, "Problems have been identified,
and we have taken corrective action."

The agency has begun setting up a central system to monitor informants,
according to the Justice Department, which oversees the DEA.

Federal investigators concluded that Chambers lied at least 16 times in
drug cases and that he was arrested at least 13 times, including for fraud
and assault. Twice he solicited a prostitute and then claimed to be a
federal agent to avoid arrest.

Charges Dropped

Chambers was convicted once, for soliciting a prostitute. Investigators
found that other charges were dropped after authorities interceded on his
behalf.

The DEA claims Chambers never lied about the "material" facts of a case.

In 1995, U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham in Denver accused the DEA of
"outrageous government misconduct" for paying Chambers so much money to
work drug cases. He ordered prosecutors and agency officials to pull
together a centralized record of Chambers' work, payments and court
testimony, so lawyers nationwide could access it.

Instead, prosecutors dismissed the drug case in question -- and four
others, the report said.