EX-INFORMANT BILKED BY FBI, SUIT CONTENDS

Court: Man Claims The Agency Encouraged Him To Infiltrate Drug Cartel, Then
Abandoned Him.

A former law enforcement officer sued the FBI in Los Angeles federal court
Friday, alleging the agency abandoned him after he served for years as a
confidential informant infiltrating a violent drug cartel in Mexico.

The lawsuit, filed by Arizona resident Avery "Skip" Ensley, 56, also
contends the FBI bilked him and his wife out of more than $1 million in
promised proceeds from the drugs, cash and weapons seized during his years
as an informant on an arm of the notorious Arellano Felix syndicate.

"One of the reasons I'm going forward with this thing is that I want other
people to know the FBI does not take care of its people," Ensley said by
phone. "My experience is that they will put anybody at risk for their own
benefit." An FBI spokeswoman declined comment on the lawsuit, citing the
agency's policy not to discuss pending litigation.

According to his lawsuit, Ensley's odyssey as an informant began in 1987,
when he told the FBI that a man shot and killed by Upland police was the
brother of a major drug trafficker named Luis Valenzuela. Valenzuela, the
lawsuit says, was a leader of the Castro drug organization, which for years
ran the Los Angeles-area operations for the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

At the time he first spoke to the FBI, Ensley says in his suit, he knew of
Valenzuela's activities because the drug dealer's brother was married to
his own wife's sister.

"When I learned of these drug connections, I couldn't look at myself in the
mirror knowing I had access to this information," said Ensley, a onetime
police officer in Oregon and police chief of North Sioux City, S.D.

After hearing Ensley's account of Valenzuela's drug activities, the lawsuit
claims, the FBI asked Ensley if he would try to "get close" to Valenzuela
and provide evidence that could be used in prosecuting a case.

"The FBI repeatedly assured the Ensleys that the government would do
everything it could to protect them," the lawsuit says, claiming agents
also assured the Ensleys they would be "well compensated" with a 10% share
of all cash seized and 10% of the value of all drugs collected in the
investigation. With that understanding, the lawsuit alleges, Ensley and his
wife successfully fostered a "personal relationship of trust" with
Valenzuela that enabled them to provide detailed information about his drug
activities.

Specifically, according to the lawsuit, Ensley negotiated a hand-to-hand
purchase of black tar heroin for $24,000 in March 1997.

Six months later, his lawsuit adds, Ensley arranged a meeting on a yacht
off Southern California where federal agents posing as drug distributors
were introduced to Valenzuela.

Those activities, along with more than 15 trips to Mexico and other
evidence provided by Ensley, enabled the FBI to secure court-ordered
wiretaps and audiovisual recordings that were eventually used in the
successful prosecution of Valenzuela's drug operation, according to the
lawsuit.

Since 1998, Valenzuela has been wanted on a federal fugitive warrant after
indictment under federal drug kingpin statutes, according to federal officials.

But in devoting themselves to the FBI investigation, the lawsuit says, the
Ensleys encountered "financially devastating" consequences--losing two
homes, a trucking business and a construction company in South Dakota, as
well as other business ventures in Oregon and Fresno.

"The Ensleys accepted these adverse financial consequences because FBI
agents repeatedly told them that they would be compensated for their
efforts," the lawsuit says.

Over the years, according to the Ensleys' attorney, Darius Nickerson, the
couple received less than $50,000 for their assistance to the FBI even
when, the lawsuit claims, they provided authorities with leads resulting in
the seizure of at least $12 million in cash and more than 1,200 kilos of
cocaine.

"I am absolutely flabbergasted that they would put my family and I at risk
like this," Ensley said, "And do so with no more consideration than if they
were dealing with some person they've arrested who's trying to make a deal."