OFFICER SUSPECTED IN DRUG SQUAD BREAK-IN

A policeman who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges has been
identified as a suspect into the break-in at the drug squad office
where files on a secret witness were stolen.

Former Senior Detective Kevin Hicks has pleaded guilty to accepting
bribes and selling out drug squad operations. He is in jail waiting to
be sentenced in the Supreme Court.

Police have found that Hicks provided the keys to the drug squad
storage facility at Attwood to allow admitted drug dealer Peter
Pilarinos and others to steal back amphetamine chemicals seized in
earlier raids.

Hicks, who was in the drug squad in the early 1990s, was in charge of
the storage area. He is also alleged to have conducted a fake raid to
steal drug chemicals worth $12,000 for Pilarinos. Hicks, a
long-serving major crime squad detective, was moved to an
administrative position in 1992.

A police taskforce, code named Sentinel, has been investigating the
break-in to the drug squad office in late 1996 in which files and
evidence in the long-running investigation into amphetamines dealer,
John Higgs, were stolen.

Hicks' name is on a short list of suspects drawn up by investigators.
"We believe he was certainly implicated," a senior police source said.

One theory is that Hicks provided security and layout details to
another person who conducted the burglary.

Hicks was arrested in May 1997 over his corrupt relationship with
Pilarinos. He resigned from the police force in December last year and
pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court last month.

A Supreme Court judge heard yesterday that Pilarinos, who lived in a
fortified East Doncaster house, was in fear for his life. Justice
George Hampel heard that Pilarinos had been ill and continued his bail
until 10 April.