PROSTITUTION ARREST LEADS TO COCAINE CACHE

Federal and local law enforcement officials said yesterday that they have
seized about 90 pounds of cocaine and a stash of cash and guns in an
investigation that began with a simple prostitution arrest along the
District-Maryland border.

Prince George's County police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
agents said they confiscated the cocaine, $530,000 and 13 firearms after
carrying out five raids last week in Prince George's, Anne Arundel and
Montgomery counties.

Three Maryland men were arrested Thursday and Friday on federal charges as
a result of the investigation, which authorities said amounted to one of
the biggest drug busts in the Washington region in recent years.

"This is one of the largest seizures of cocaine in this area that I can
recall," said Frank J. Chellino, special agent in charge of the DEA's
Washington division, which also covers Maryland, Virginia and West
Virginia. "And this is really just the beginning."

Chellino estimated the wholesale value of the cocaine at $800,000 but said
the shrink-wrapped bricks of the drug could have been sold on the street
for 10 times that amount.

Authorities divulged few details about their investigation except to say
that it started with a chance arrest last month by a female Prince George's
police officer who was working undercover as a prostitute on Eastern
Avenue, along the boundary between the District and Prince George's County.

The officer was working as part of a task force of District and Prince
George's police who are deputized with federal powers that allow them to
cross jurisdictional boundaries to make arrests.

Officials declined to say how the person arrested on the prostitution
charge led them to the men accused of selling cocaine. But they said
investigators hadn't come across the suspects before and that they were
taken aback by the extent of the drug-dealing operation.

"Now that's a scary thought, that law enforcement was not aware of the
people behind something of this magnitude," said Prince George's Police
Chief John S. Farrell.

Authorities refused to name the suspects at a news conference that they
called to announce the arrests yesterday. But records filed in U.S.
District Court in Greenbelt identified them as Jamerson Devoir Tillman, 23,
of Greenbelt; his brother, James Tillman, 25, of Severn; and Lyle Kent
Wade, 37, of Landover.

The three are charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
They are scheduled to appear in federal court today for a detention hearing.

According to an affidavit filed by a DEA agent as part of the criminal
complaint, Prince George's police began investigating the Tillman brothers
last month as suspected drug-traffickers.

On March 9, the affidavit states, the pair drove a Cadillac from Jamerson
Tillman's apartment in Greenbelt to the 4700 block of 67th Avenue in
Landover Hills, where they passed a paper bag with about 2.2 pounds of
cocaine to two men in a Nissan Altima. Police chased the Nissan for two
miles before it crashed into a cruiser. The driver escaped, but police
arrested the passenger, identified as Wade.

The next day, police arrested the Tillmans at their apartments in Greenbelt
and Severn, where they also seized about 57 pounds of cocaine, two loaded
9mm semiautomatic pistols and more than $400,000, the affidavit said.