POLICE FILES SAFE DESPITE PROBLEMS, AGENCIES SAY

The FBI investigation of an El Paso city police officer accused of having
ties to drug traffickers has raised questions about the security of
sensitive police files related to drug investigations.

How do law enforcement agencies decide who has access to such information?

Can any police officer request information on suspects, or is access
limited to certain people with the proper clearance and the need to know,
as it is in the federal government?

Despite the concerns raised by the investigation of police Officer Luis
Cortinas, who hasn't been charged with a crime and whose lawyer says is
innocent, law enforcement agencies in the El Paso region said they are
confident they have secure systems that prevent breaches of sensitive
intelligence.

According to a city police report, Cortinas was suspected of conducting
counter-surveillance on anti-narcotics task force operations. The report
said he showed up unexpectedly during such operations.

The report also stated he was suspected of associating with known drug
dealers and of providing them information about undercover police vehicles
and undercover officers' names.

Through his lawyer, Dolph Quijano, Cortinas has denied the allegations.

The police report also said El Paso police Chief Carlos Leon took Cortinas
to meetings of the West Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area center
when Cortinas was Leon's administrative assistant.

Leon said he never took Cortinas to HIDTA meetings. Cortinas was his
administrative assistant in 1999, from January to Sept. 12 of that year.

City officials said the FBI is investigating the allegations against Cortinas.

HIDTA, which coordinates drug-interdiction efforts in West Texas, is
overseen by a board of directors, which includes top law enforcement
officials from West Texas.

HIDTA director Travis Kuykendall said he never saw Cortinas at HIDTA meetings.

"He wouldn't be allowed to attend HIDTA meetings just because he is a
police chief's administrative assistant," Kuykendall said. "You have to be
in a need-to-know position. Every parent (law enforcement agency) provides
us with a list of people who are certified to have access" to drug
intelligence. I don't believe (Cortinas) was on the list."

El Paso Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent-in-Charge Bobby
Castillo, HIDTA's executive chairman, also said Cortinas never attended
HIDTA meetings.

Most discussions at general HIDTA board meetings had to do with such topics
as grant opportunities, Castillo said. Specific details about cases were
discussed only with people who were cleared to receive the information, he
added.

Police Sgt. Al Velarde, spokesman for the El Paso Police Department, said
the Police Department has different "levels of access (to investigative
files), and the level of access depends on rank and position."

Velarde said he could not comment on whether Cortinas had access to
counter-drug intelligence "since that might be getting into the (FBI)
investigation."

Velarde said it's possible to trace who has looked at computer files and
why. "Systems are also in place that allow detectives to investigate while
(blocking) access to someone else to information that could hurt the
integrity of the investigation," he said.

The safety and security of drug investigators and support employees was the
primary reason the federal government's El Paso Intelligence Center was
moved to Biggs Army Airfield from East Missouri Street in Central El Paso,
said Phil Jordan, former head of EPIC.

"We had information that drug traffickers were taking down the license
plates of our employees' vehicles in the parking lot," Jordan said. "Some
people thought I was being paranoid, but we had information to that effect."

Kuykendall said that neither the police nor sheriff's department has access
to EPIC's drug intelligence.

The center tracks drugs, weapons and immigrant smuggling worldwide. It uses
human and electronic spies, including satellites, to track drug shipments
so they can be intercepted before they enter the United States.

Jordan said EPIC operated with such tight security that it was difficult to
impossible for unauthorized people to tap into the center's drug
intelligence files. "Everything and everyone (at EPIC) was closely
monitored," he said.

Jordan said higher-ups in Washington, D.C., did not take his warnings
seriously when he tried to tell them that law enforcement corruption on the
U.S. side of the border was on the increase.

The trend in the past decade coincided with the rise of Mexico's powerful
drug organizations, including the Juarez and Tijuana drug cartels, he said.
"The main reason is that the (drug cartels) have the resources and money to
entice some people to look the other way," Jordan said. "The resources to
combat the problem of increased corruption have never been equal to the
problem."

Jordan's concerns were supported by a 1999 General Accounting Office report
that examined 28 convictions of U.S. Customs Service and Immigration and
Naturalization Service officials on the Southwest border.

The 1992-97 cases, six of which involved officers stationed in El Paso,
were for drug-related violations. The GAO did not identify the 28 federal
employees who were convicted. Violations involved waving drug shipments
through official border crossings, selling drugs, coordinating drug
shipments and disclosing intelligence.

The report concluded that both federal agencies needed to do more to curb
employee corruption. It recommended that federal agencies update background
checks on employees to identify suspicious changes in their status.

Although the 1999 GAO report focused only on INS and customs officers, in
1993 a federal grand jury in El Paso indicted four El Paso law enforcement
officers on drug charges.

El Paso Police Department detectives Manuel Figueroa and Luis Marquez were
indicted in 1993 on federal drugs charges. They were assigned to the police
Alpha Section, which deals with high-profile narcotics cases. Both were
fired by former police Chief John Scagno after they were arrested by the FBI.

Figueroa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to
distribute, and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. Marquez pleaded
innocent and was found innocent by a U.S. District Court jury.

Also in 1993, two El Paso County sheriff's deputies, Maria del Carmen
Rodriguez and Albert Acosta, were convicted on charges of conspiring to buy
narcotics. Rodriguez was a narcotics investigator. Sheriff Leo Samaniego
fired both after the FBI arrested them.

Jordan said non-federal law enforcement officials selected to work with DEA
counter-narcotics task forces were "deputized federal officers," whose
backgrounds were investigated in advance.

Jordan said law enforcement agencies can operate with strict security
systems, "but the human element is more difficult to control."