PAIR IN FAKE-DRUG SCANDAL ALSO WORKED FEDERAL CASES

Were U.S. Prosecutions Tainted By Officers' Role? Agencies Remain Mum

Two Dallas detectives whose work with now-discredited informants is at the
center of an FBI inquiry also took part in a federal drug investigation for
at least seven months in 2001, according to interviews and police records.
Federal officials took over investigating the so-called sheetrock drug
scandal more than a year ago but have never disclosed the officers'
involvement in federal cases.

Time cards obtained through state open-records laws show that Senior Cpl.
Mark Delapaz and Officer Eddie Herrera applied for overtime on a federal
investigation at least 28 times between April and November 2001. The
officers' work through the Police Department led state prosecutors to
dismiss more than 85 state felony drug cases, many from the same period.
The latest disclosure raises questions about whether federal cases may have
been tainted and if so, how many.

FBI officials did not respond Thursday when asked whether federal drug
cases had been tainted by the involvement of the officers, who are on paid
leave with the Police Department.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Jane Boyle, whose office prosecutes federal
drug cases filed by FBI agents, also declined to comment. "We're not going
to comment in any fashion to anything that you've asked about," said Kathy
Colvin, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office. Police records
show that the two officers requested overtime funds from a multiagency
federal task force called the North Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area program, or HIDTA. The group is made up of FBI, DEA and local
narcotics officers from area agencies.

Sources close to the case say Cpl. Delapaz and Officer Herrera and at least
one of their informants worked at the behest of the FBI on at least one
investigation. They bought mostly small amounts of drugs from suspected
dealers in hopes of infiltrating higher into drug organizations. It remains
unclear how closely they worked with FBI agents or whether their work led
to any arrests.

A major source of drug prosecutions is the Drug Enforcement Administration,
which also contributes agents to HIDTA.

Internal review Sherri Strange, special agent in charge of Dallas' DEA
office, said her agency conducted an extensive internal review of drug
cases early last year to determine whether any of the officers or
informants ever participated in a DEA-controlled case, paid or unpaid.

"They positively did not," Agent Strange said, adding that DEA agents once
provided agents to support the two officers for one of their Police
Department drug busts.

Dallas police officials would not disclose details of the officers' federal
work, saying it could hamper active drug investigations. Police documents
show that on at least four occasions during their federal undercover work,
the officers purchased cocaine but apparently made no arrests.
Investigators routinely make such "controlled buys" to build larger cases
or to bolster a court request for a wiretap.

The officers also purchased an undisclosed amount of cocaine on April 19,
2001. Purchases of 4 ounces of cocaine also were documented on May 14 and
June 5. The last known report was filed on Nov. 15 with a notation that
Cpl. Delapaz had purchased 3.5 ounces of cocaine.

By mid-November, Dallas police and Dallas County prosecutors were aware of
mounting problems with major narcotics cases generated by the two officers
and their informants in state cases.

An internal police investigation began Nov. 30, and the FBI took over the
inquiry in January at the request of District Attorney Bill Hill. In dozens
of large felony-level drug seizures and arrests logged by the two officers
during their work for the Police Department, lab tests revealed that the
substances in many of the cases was not drugs but crushed gypsum, the
primary ingredient in sheetrock and pool chalk.

Authorities said that as many as 10 large drug seizures involved phony
drugs, and about 14 others contained a sprinkling of real narcotics among
larger amounts of bogus drugs. Many more cases were dismissed by
prosecutors because of credibility questions about the officers and the
informants. Those arrested were mostly low-income Mexican immigrants who
spent months in jail awaiting trial. Some were convicted before their cases
were overturned. The informants The civilian informants were reportedly
paid more than $200,000 by the Dallas Police Department, their fees based
on quantities of drugs they were responsible for removing from the streets.

Those informants have pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges and
are cooperating with FBI investigators.

Dallas police officials declined to comment about the narcotics division's
activities because of the federal investigation.

A federal grand jury is hearing testimony related to the fake-drug cases.
Those who have appeared before the panel include some of the officers'
colleagues in the narcotics division, patrol officers who have taken part
in the arrests and informants now cooperating with prosecutors, sources
said. Conflict of interest?

Attorney William Nellis, who is representing one of the informants, said
the officers' connection to the FBI drug squad raises a possible conflict
of interest. "If the very agency that is supposedly overseeing this
investigation - if they had a history with the same people at the same time
that we're talking about - that's disturbing," he said.

Former U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins said the FBI has ties with virtually
every city and police agency in the country these days and can't be
expected to recuse itself from investigating possible corruption. "It's a
tough position to investigate departments they have worked with," he said.
"But historically, they've done a good job with it, and frankly, there's no
one else to do it."