EXPERTS QUESTION FAKE-DRUG ACCOUNT

Police Continued Using Informant Because He Passed Lie-Detector Test

The city's first public explanation of how two Dallas police officers could
have been involved in a large drug bust that was later found to involve
fake drugs raises as many questions as answers, drug enforcement experts
said last week.

According to federal court documents filed in response to a civil-rights
lawsuit, narcotics division supervisors decided to continue employing a
confidential informant even after lab tests of a huge drug seizure he
helped engineer found that the drugs were phony.

Instead of scrutinizing their own practices, supervisors pointed to a
polygraph test that indicated the informant had no knowledge of the
conspiracy. They concluded that a drug dealer had sold fake drugs to the
unwitting man, the court document says.

Because the informant previously had helped the officers make valid
arrests, supervisors - including a lieutenant who has since been promoted
to deputy chief - gave two narcotics detectives permission to continue
working with the man.

Dallas police have declined to comment on the questionable cases since the
FBI began investigating the cases. Federal investigators won't comment,
citing the continuing investigation.

Phil Jordan, former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Dallas
division, said questions should have been asked when the first drug seizure
was analyzed in September. The substance was not cocaine, as field tests by
police initially indicated, but almost entirely gypsum, a material commonly
found in drywall.

Although field tests of drugs are not as accurate or detailed as lab
analysis, they are highly reliable, he said.

The conflicting test results should have raised questions about whether the
field tests were being performed properly, he said.

"In 30 years working in narcotics investigations, from my experience I
don't recall one test coming back as a false positive whether it was
cocaine, methamphetamine or heroin," he said. "It's very difficult to fool
even the field test."

Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, said
police were wise to perform the polygraph test on the informant. They
shouldn't have relied solely on the results because they can be subject to
interpretation, he said.

The conclusion by supervisors that the informant was duped by a drug dealer
on such a large drug purchase would raise questions about the informant's
reliability, Mr. Sterling said. In the drug world, dealers rarely sell fake
drugs in large transactions because they would fear retaliation once the
forgery was discovered, he said.

"The seller is aware that the buyer is going to come back and rip his head
off," he said.

Mr. Jordan agreed: "A good informant with knowledge of the drug world -
there's no way a good informant is going to accept fake drugs."

After that first warning from the lab test in September, the detectives
resumed their work with the informant and at least two others, and the
large busts continued. The two detectives assigned to the division's street
squad routinely logged sizable seizures that would indicate they were
nabbing large dealers, police records show.

Whoever was responsible for the fake drugs apparently thought they could
operate with impunity, Mr. Jordan said.

"It appeared they saw a carte blanche approach to making a lot of money,"
he said.

It wasn't until more laboratory tests requested by defense attorneys came
back negative that the extent of the faulty cases was identified. Lab
results found that at least two dozen of the seizures thought to be drugs
contained no illegal substances or only trace residue.

Those arrested - mostly poor immigrants whose only evidence against them
was the informant's word - spent as long as five months in jail, and some
were deported.

Don Tittle, an attorney for the man suing the city over his arrest, said he
thinks it would have been impossible for the officers to be duped.

District Attorney Bill Hill has since dismissed more than 70 felony cases
linked to the two detectives, Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz and Officer Eddie
Herrera.

The informant, Enrique Martinez Alonso, received about $200,000 for the
information he supplied narcotics investigators. Federal authorities are
holding him and another informant linked to the faulty cases on unrelated
charges.

Lt. Bill Turnage, who oversaw the two narcotics detectives, was promoted to
deputy chief in September and oversees the northeast Dallas patrol
division. Cpl. Delapaz and Officer Herrera have been placed on
administrative leave with pay.

Police Chief Terrell Bolton on Friday discussed a DEA review of the
narcotics division's policies and procedures. He said most of the
recommendations, including changes in the way the department handles
confidential informants, had been made after the problem drug busts were
discovered.

He said that because authorities have not determined who was responsible
for the fake drugs, the new procedures might not have prevented the problem.