2 JAIL WORKERS SUSPECTED OF SELLING DRUGS

At least two of the 11 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
employees caught up in a massive credit card fraud scheme are also
suspected of having sold black tar heroin inside the Twin Towers Jail,
sheriff's investigators told The Times on Thursday.

One of those under suspicion of drug dealing, according to
investigators, is a retired Los Angeles police officer who joined the
Sheriff's Department in November 1997. Black tar is a smokable form of
heroin.

As a result of their suspicions, investigators brought trained dogs to
the jail Wednesday as deputies searched employees' lockers. The
department carried out 21 search warrants Wednesday, mostly at the
homes of four deputies and seven civilian employees suspected of
participating in two massive credit card fraud scams. The searches
failed to uncover narcotics at any of the locations, officials said.
But the drug allegations are among the new leads that investigators
are following in the unfolding crisis in the Sheriff's Department,
which runs the largest jail system in the country.

Investigators said their searches Wednesday recovered volumes of
significant, dramatic evidence that will probably produce additional
criminal allegations against the 11 suspects and other as yet
unidentified accomplices.

"We are now actively pursuing other allegations," said Sgt. Michael
Pippin, the sheriff's lead investigator on the case. "We're going into
another phase of this investigation. At one of the locations, we
recovered some very compelling corroborative evidence that further
implicates a number of our targeted employees."

Sheriff Lee Baca said Thursday that he does not believe that "this
investigation is in any way concluded," and that he expects others
within the department to be implicated.

While Baca did not address the drug allegations, other sheriff's
officials said they believe a deputy and custody assistant--a civilian
employee in Twin Towers--were involved in selling heroin to inmates.
Those allegations surfaced in the course of an undercover credit card
sting operation the department's Internal Criminal Investigations
Bureau conducted over the past seven months.

Sheriff's officials said they will continue to pursue the drug-selling
allegations as part of their ongoing investigation.

"We want to get everybody, believe me," said Assistant Sheriff Dennis
Dahlman, who oversees the custody division. "If there's a hint, we'll
pursue it."

At Twin Towers, where all of the employees under suspicion except one
worked, rumors concerning a corruption probe circulated for weeks
before Wednesday's searches. To divert attention from their actual
undercover investigation, department officials floated a rumor that
they were seeking information on a sex and drugs scheme involving
inmates and employees. Briefings were held Thursday so employees could
receive accurate information on the credit card sting, officials said.

All of the department employees caught up in the credit card scam
allegations were relieved of duty Wednesday. Baca said he will move to
fire them.

"This is a message to every employee in the organization that if you
think you can get away with something, you're not going to. . . .
We're going to find a place for you and it's called jail," Baca told a
packed news conference Thursday morning. "If this had not been
intercepted by our department, I have no doubt that these people, in
their brazen disregard for the law, would be continuing."

The department's internal criminal investigation began after officials
received a tip regarding the credit card ring's operation.
Investigators simultaneously discovered that one of the deputies,
David Osorio, was allegedly involved in a much bigger credit card
fraud scheme operating outside the department. It is that "elaborate
network"--which officials believe does not include department
employees--that has become a major focus of the investigation.

"We are in no way done with Deputy Osorio," Pippin said. "After
yesterday's operation, we've received information we're actively pursuing."

Investigators believe Osorio was the ringleader in the internal credit
card scam and a partner in the wider network, which is thought to have
netted its participants millions of dollars from hundreds of stolen
credit cards. They believe that Osorio personally amassed $500,000 to
$1 million, and that he was probably engaged in that fraud ring before
joining the department four years ago.

In the wider ring, authorities said, Osorio and his partner received
credit cards stolen by Postal Service employees with access to
security bags. A postal inspector said Thursday that the department is
conducting its own internal investigation into those
allegations.

The case against the employees will be turned over to the district
attorney's office, which is likely to convene a grand jury to seek
indictments.

Sheriff's officials said they believe the four deputies and all but
one custody assistant are likely to face felony charges. Aside from
Osorio, the other deputies allegedly involved are Richard English,
Monica Planty and Jessie Zuniga.

Sheriff's investigators, who interviewed all the employees involved
Wednesday, said some are cooperating with them and others are denying
any involvement in the scam despite department videotapes showing them
receiving and using credit cards they allegedly believed were stolen.

It remains unclear whether the deputies and civilians would be
represented by their unions, since investigators believe most of the
criminal activity occurred when the employees were off duty.

To conduct the sting, the department set up dummy bank accounts,
mostly through Bank of America, using $35,000 authorized by Baca. The
employees received what they allegedly thought were stolen credit cards.

The investigation comes against the backdrop of the Los Angeles Police
Department's Rampart corruption scandal, in which more than 30 LAPD
officers have either been relieved of duty, suspended, fired or have
quit. More than 70 are under investigation for a variety of offenses,
including covering up unjustified shootings, intimidating witnesses,
planting evidence and perjury. In addition, prosecutors have
successfully overturned more than 75 felony convictions because of the
involvement of allegedly corrupt officers.