2 MORE DEALERS SENTENCED IN DRUG STING

Two more convicted crack dealers were sent to federal prison Monday
after being ensnared in a sting involving a controversial, big-ticket
informant.

U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. ordered Theodore McCullough,
39, to serve 11 years and eight months. The judge sentenced Deborah
Hills, 36, to eight years and four months.

The pair, both of Palmetto, join two other dealers who were part of
the same crack ring and who were sentenced this month. The ring
operated in Bradenton.

Local and federal law enforcement agents investigated the group for
some time. But the arrests didn't come until the ring was successfully
infiltrated by the Drug Enforcement Administration's second-highest
paid informant, Andrew Chambers.

Chambers, of St. Louis, has earned more than $2 million in 15 years of
informing for the DEA and maybe as much as $2 million more from other
law enforcement agencies. In recent months, he has become a lightning
rod for criticism about paid informants.

Chambers' specialty is luring suspects into drug deals with undercover
agents. He has done it from coast to coast - despite a lengthy arrest
record and findings by two federal appeals courts that he lied under
oath about his criminal past and his education.

His status as an informant changed in January when the DEA, barraged
by critical news reports about Chambers, suspended him pending further
investigation.

In addition to the federal case, Chambers has been linked to several
state cocaine cases. The defendants in those cases are awaiting trial
and their lawyers plan to challenge Chambers if prosecutors put him on
the stand.