POLICE DEFEND TOYS 'R US DRUG BUST

STATE POLICE acknowledged yesterday that the public could have been in
danger when an undercover police officer met with alleged drug dealers in a
Manchester toy store parking lot Tuesday afternoon.

However, police point out that undercover drug investigations are
inherently dangerous and that they had taken steps to ensure as much as
possible the safety of both the public and officers.

As a result of the seven-month undercover investigation four men, described
by state police narcotics detective Bruce Twyon as "dangerous criminals,"
are in the Valley Street Jail on $500,000 to $750,000 cash bail.

The men -- Woodley Dutervil, 25, of 80 Dunbarton Road, No. 5, Manchester;
Latorre Johnson, 25, of 251 Putnam St., Manchester; James Johnson, 26, 57
Oceanview Drive, Dorchester, Mass., and Jeffrey Thomas, 33, of 299 Norfolk
St., Boston -- were arraigned on the felony charges yesterday morning in
Manchester District Court.

None of the defendants was allowed to enter pleas in district court
yesterday since the charges are all felonies. Probable cause hearings were
set for Dec. 2, at which time they can argue for lower bail.

They were charged with various crimes including receiving stolen property,
conspiracy to sell a narcotic drug, possessing a controlled drug and felony
possession of a firearm in connection with the drug bust Tuesday at 6 p.m.
in the Toys 'R Us parking lot on Kaye Street.

There, State Police Sgt. Mike Hambrook of the Narcotics Investigations Unit
said, the defendants tried to lure State Trooper John Encarnacao out behind
the toy store. The defendants' plan, according to Twyon, was to rob
Encarnacao of the $22,500 in cash.

Hambrook acknowledged that customers, including children, heading into the
toy store could have been placed in danger by the undercover operation. He
said, however, that drug deals are happening everywhere, whether an
undercover investigation or not.

"If you go Christmas shopping this year, there can be a dozen drug sales
going down in the parking lot without police involvement," he said.

State police, he said, are trying to infiltrate drug dealing operations
through undercover investigations, an inherently dangerous job. In
undercover probes, he said, police operate under the drug dealers' rules
and not the standard operating procedures of state police.

At the same time, however, he said police try to control the situation --
with other officers nearby to be called in, if necessary -- and make it as
safe as possible for both the public and the undercover officers.

Twyon said that while police had other officers in place to ensure
Encarnacao's and the public's safety, two of the four men arrested were
conducting their own counter-surveillance prior to the alleged sale.

They had cellular telephones, he explained, and were walking around the
parking lot peering in cars and checking out the entire area.

According to police, Encarnacao allegedly negotiated a price of $22,500 for
a kilo of cocaine with Dutervil, who police said sold 20BD ounces of
cocaine and two ounces of crack cocaine to the undercover officer over the
past several months.

Twyon said, however, that Dutervil apparently went to another alleged drug
supplier -- Latorre Johnson -- for the kilo which later tested negative for
cocaine. Twyon said the substance could be anything, flour or baking
powder, for instance, but that won't be determined until it is analyzed by
the state police laboratory, a process that could take two weeks or more.

Hambrook said that the defendants had tried to have the drug deal go down
on Monday night.

Encarnacao and the defendants met that night, he said, near Manchester West
High School. The defendants wanted Encarnacao to go inside a nearby
residence for the alleged drug exchange. Encarnacao, he said, refused and a
new date and time was chosen by the defendants: the parking lot at Toys 'R Us.

Originally, each of the four men was held on $250,000 cash set by a bail
commissioner Tuesday night. However, Judge William Lyons, after listening
to information provided by Jane Young, an assistant state attorney general,
raised it to $250,000 per charge for each defendant.

Should any of the men be able to raise the bail money, they must return to
court for a hearing to determine whether the source of the cash is the
result of drug-dealing.