DEA REPORT FINDS AGENTS SHOULD HAVE CHECKED MORE INTO INFORMANT

ST. LOUIS -- Federal agents should have done more to investigate the
background of prolific drug snitch Andrew Chambers -- and to report his
lies -- an internal DEA report suggests.

The report found that the agency had no requirement that agents report
wrongdoing to headquarters so information could be shared with agents
worldwide, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in its Sunday editions.

The partially censored U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration report was
obtained by the Post-Dispatch through a Freedom of Information Act request.

For 16 years beginning in 1984, Chambers was the DEA's most successful
informer. He has been credited with contributing to the arrests of more
than 400 drug suspects in 31 cities across the country.

Chambers testified in court or under oath at least 25 times for the DEA,
the report said. In at least 16 of those cases, he lied about his
background to make himself look more credible to judges and jurors.

He would often testify that he had no criminal background, though he had
been charged with forgery, posing as a private investigator, and defrauding
a jeweler of $1,555.

The report said that on June 9, 1988, Chambers was testifying for the
government at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. This time, he
admitted previous lies on the witness stand.

Then he added a new lie, saying he had testified for the government "more
than 100 times."

A federal drug agent who had used Chambers as a snitch in about 25 cases
was in the courtroom. When she heard Chambers' disclosures, she left the
courtroom to tell her supervisor about the admissions of false testimony,
the report said.

Her supervisor was later dismissed for unrelated misconduct, the report
said. The report found no evidence that the unidentified agent's warning
ever went up the chain of command of the DEA or prosecutors in the Justice
Department.

Since the scandal broke, prosecutors across the country have dropped
charges against at least 14 accused drug dealers rather than risk putting
Chambers on the witness stand again.