DIA HALTS DRUG BURNS AFTER EMPLOYEE'S ARREST

Thursday, July 04, 2002 - Denver International Airport has stopped
destroying narcotics in its incinerator and is re-evaluating the practice
following the arrest of a DIA worker who allegedly stole and sold drugs
meant to be destroyed.

"We have ceased all drug burning to re-evaluate our procedures," said
airport spokesman Steve Snyder. "I don't really want to go into specifics
on that. We're going to re-evaluate everything."

Stephen B. Martinez, 40, was arrested Tuesday after Denver and Drug
Enforcement Administration detectives searched his Lakewood home and found
114 pounds of marijuana, 4.9 ounces of cocaine and drug paraphernalia in a
freezer in Martinez's garage. Martinez, a maintenance worker at DIA who
operates the incinerator, confessed to stealing drugs brought to the
incinerator and reselling them, according to an arrest affidavit.

Federal regulations require that DIA have an incinerator to destroy garbage
from international flights, Snyder said. But, as a service to local law
enforcement agencies, Snyder said, DIA also burns seized narcotics for a
fee. It is the only incinerator the Denver Police Department and many other
metro-area agencies use.

Narcotics destroyed in the incinerator was evidence from concluded cases,
so no open investigations were compromised by the thefts, officials said.

Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Colorado,
which is prosecuting the case, said investigators are still trying to
determine how Martinez acquired the drugs and how he smuggled them out of
the airport. Snyder said Martinez had to go through the same security
screening and background checks as any other badged DIA employee. He would
not say whether Martinez had to go through security every day when he left
the airport.

According to the arrest affidavit, Martinez stole the drugs from an
evidence locker at the airport. But Denver police Capt. Jim Collier, the
commander of officers at DIA, said police do not keep evidence in a locker
at the airport but send it downtown. Snyder said agencies set up
appointments to bring in drugs for incineration, and the contraband is not
stored in a locker before being destroyed.

Snyder said agencies bringing in narcotics are responsible for them.

"We run the incinerator," Snyder said. "But whatever agency is out here, it
is their responsibility to maintain control of the contraband until it is
destroyed."

Denver police are required to stay at the incinerator and watch until drugs
burst into flames, said Lt. Deborah Dilley. She said because of that
procedure, she doubted the stolen drugs came from the Denver Police Department.

Dorschner said investigators hope to find out where the drugs came from.

"The big question is at what point do you leave the evidence in the
incinerator and walk away?" he said.

Snyder said airport officials should make a decision on new procedures for
narcotics incineration in the next couple of weeks.