SARASOTA CASHES IN ON FORFEITURES BY LURING DRUG DEALERS TO AREA

Critics Label Operations As 'Money-Making Scheme'

SARASOTA - Dealers from as far away as England, Venezuela and Panama
are being lured to Sarasota to buy illegal drugs from undercover
detectives posing as dealers.

Police arrest the dealers and seize the cash and vehicles left
behind.

Since 2001, more than $1.3 million has flowed into the department
under federal and state forfeiture laws that allow police to keep
money and valuables seized from suspected dealers. Sarasota police say
the drug deals take dangerous people off the street, and the cash
supplements the police budget and helps some charitable causes. Much
of the money was used to perpetuate the undercover operations and pay
for law enforcement conferences and supplies. According to a Sarasota
Herald- Tribune review:

About $240,000 went to pay for conferences for officers, including
training trips to Orlando, Panama City Beach and Las Vegas.

Since 2001, a confidential informant has been paid about $115,000 to
help with the operations. The department has given $100,000 to several
other informants.

Sarasota may seem an unlikely place to stage an international drug
deal, but Sarasota detectives and federal Drug Enforcement
Administration agents have lured at least 40 people here since 2001
and arrested them on federal trafficking charges, according to court
records. Many of the dealers are serving long prison terms.

"The main point is to get bad guys off the streets," said the
detective behind the arrests, who for safety reasons did not want to
be identified. "My job is to lock bad guys up."

Open to debate is whether the arrests benefit the city. Virginia
lawyer David B. Smith, an expert on forfeiture law, questions the
motives behind the operations.

"Most communities are not interested in spending their resources
dealing with out-of-town bad guys," said Smith, a former U.S.
Department of Justice forfeiture official. "It's obviously a money-
making scheme."

The lead detective disputes that assertion.

"I don't focus on the money," he said. But he acknowledges that the
operations have little to do with fighting drugs in Sarasota. "We are
doing more good for the global aspect of reducing crime than we are in
Sarasota," he said.

How It's Done

In the "reverse stings," paid informants contact high-level
international buyers interested in large quantities of cocaine. The
lead detective and informants travel across the country and overseas,
with federal authorities paying for expenses, officials said.

The final transactions and arrests happen at secret locations here,
mostly in the middle of the night. The dealers are "very dangerous,
dangerous people," most of whom entered the country illegally and
don't live in Sarasota, the lead detective said.

By law, the money cannot be spent on normal operating costs such as
salaries.

In addition to spending about $450,000 on conferences and informants,
the department has spent $160,000 to lease expensive cars, $45,000 on
cell phone bills and $35,000 on lawyers who handle forfeiture
proceedings.

When the city commission asked Police Chief Peter Abbott earlier this
year to cut his department's budget, he elected to maintain the drug
program and suggested that two community policing programs be
eliminated. In the face of a public outcry, he decided to continue the
community programs.

Police must donate 15 percent of money collected under state
forfeiture laws to drug and crime prevention programs in their
communities: Sarasota police collected $500,000.

Since 2001, the department has donated $80,000 to a number of
charities, including Sarasota Court Watch, a missing child charity in
Fort Lauderdale, and Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E,
which teaches elementary school students about the negative impact of
drugs. The total donations figure, which just meets the state-set
minimum, includes $60,000 donated in the past two weeks after
questions were raised by a reporter.

Police spokesman Jay Frank says the timing of the donations, which
were made near the end of the department's fiscal year, was
coincidental. There is no requirement to make charitable donations
from the $800,000 collected under the federal law.

DEA Connection

Sarasota's proximity to Interstate 75 and its reputation as a quiet
community are enough to attract dealers, said Dominic P. Albanese,
assistant special agent in charge of the DEA's Tampa office.

"Would I rather do something in Miami or go a couple of hours to
sleepy Collier County or Sarasota? To me, it's a no-brainer: I want to
get out of the limelight," Albanese said.

The operations are run by the lead detective and a DEA special agent.
Five detectives with the department's strategic narcotics unit help
out. The relationship between the lead detective and the DEA began in
1987, he said.

Police say the strategic unit's relationship with the DEA has helped
the local fight against crime. After a two-year operation, city police
and federal authorities arrested about 20 Sarasota residents in July
on charges they supplied hundreds of thousands of dollars in cocaine
to the Newtown community since 1997. They executed search warrants and
seized $128,000 during that investigation, called "Operation One-
Drop."

Many of the seizures were made under a state civil forfeiture law
designed to take the profit out of the drug trade. The Florida
Contraband Forfeiture Act allows authorities to seize any property
used in committing any felony. Sarasota police have seized cars,
money, jewelry and even a horse.

Sarasota's "reverse sting" operations are unusual for such a small
department, said Smith, the forfeiture expert. No other local agency
in Sarasota, Manatee or Charlotte stages the deals on such a grand
scale.

The operations worry some residents, who say there are enough
criminals in Sarasota already.

"That means you're luring people you know are dangerous," said
Newtown activist Michelle Martin.

The detective said the operations are quiet, happen overnight and away
from local residents and are easier to control on the department's
"home turf."

The risky work has made the detective and the strategic unit a source
of pride within the city and department. City Commissioner Fredd
Atkins said he fully approves of the international deals, though he
questions how the money is spent.

"I don't find any fault in us luring drug dealers at the upper level
of the echelon," Atkins said. "I'd rather see them in jail than the
pushers and users."

But he says he wishes some of the money would go toward the drug
problem in Newtown, a community where "drugs are greatly impacting in
a negative way," he said. "They've basically ignored the opportunity
to help the people," Atkins said. "Instead, they continue to buy
their toys and take their trips."

How Seized Money Is Used

Police officials say the money seized is put to good use. The
department used $200,000 to match a federal grant for new laptops and
software, including a program that speaks to patrol officers while
they're driving, a program that prints computerized traffic tickets
and one that allows officers to store mug shots on their laptops.

The money is also used for equipment and supplies, as well as class
tuition reimbursement for some officers. And it pays for conferences,
which Abbott said are essential training opportunities that attract
new officers and help others improve. The department, with 200
officers, spent about $100,000 on training and conferences in 2001,
and $140,000 more since then.

Since 2000, the money has financed dozens of trips to Orlando,
including stays at the Hilton Walt Disney World and the Swan during
conferences sponsored by groups such as the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement.

The department sent six officers to the Florida Narcotics Association
conference in Panama City Beach. Three drug detectives attended a
seminar in Las Vegas, where they stayed at the MGM Grand Hotel. That
trip cost $4,000.

Abbott said the conferences are well worth the cost.

"I don't think people are riding Dumbo the Elephant when they're
supposed to be at antiterrorist training," he said.