OFFICER TELLS OF UNDERCOVER WORK

Coleman's Experiences With Tulia Drug Dealers Led To Multiple
Arrests

Tom Coleman's job has many rewards, but the sweetest came July 23
when Coleman got to participate in the arrests of about four dozen
people who sold him drugs in the past 18 months.

"It was great," Coleman said. "I walked in there with 'police'
written across my vest and pulled off my mask and they just stared
at me with their mouths open. A lot of them just kept saying 'I
can't believe you're a cop. No way you're a cop.' It was just
perfect."

Coleman ended a nearly 18-month stint deep undercover in the Tulia
area, working his way into the local drug scene and accumulating
evidence on anyone who would sell drugs to him. During that time,
Coleman went through a lot of tense moments, but said the danger
never swayed him from his mission to take down as many drug dealers
as he could.

"I hate dope, and I hate dope dealers," Coleman said. "I figured
that doing this, I could maybe put a few dealers in jail before they
came across the path of somebody's kid.

"There were some pretty tense times, but you just focus on doing the
job the best you can."

Law enforcement almost runs in Coleman's blood. He said he didn't
want to reveal too much of his background out of concern for
retribution, but did say that his grandfather was a sheriff, his
father was a Texas Ranger and his mother also works in law
enforcement.

Coleman got into law enforcement 12 years ago but worked in other
parts of Texas before he arrived in the Amarillo area about two
years ago.

Coleman came to Amarillo with the funding of the Texas Narcotics
Control Program, which provided money for the Panhandle Narcotics
Task Force to enact the undercover program, said Sgt. Jerry
Massengill, Coleman's supervisor.

After acquiring the funding, task force members looked for someone
from outside the area who had the skills and experience to undertake
the hazardous work.

A new face is practically a requirement for deep cover operations,
because if an officer comes across a criminal they've arrested
before, that person could blow the cover and jeopardize the
officer's safety, Massengill said.

Coleman was hired by Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and
assigned to the task force.

After a couple of months of local training, including a school run
by the Drug Enforcement Agency that teaches narcotics officer skills
and undercover work, Coleman was ready to hit the streets.

Coleman said at first it was tough breaking into the drug community
in Tulia, where he focused most of his efforts. The drug dealers
were by nature paranoid and had formed a close-knit community.
Coleman said he took a couple of manual labor jobs and just hung out
in Tulia until he earned enough trust to break into the community.

"Everybody knew everybody, and they were pretty distrustful of
anybody coming in from the outside," Coleman said.

"The trick was getting in. It was just a bunch of shucking and
jiving. Walking the walk and talking the talk. Once you know how
things work and how you're supposed to act, you just work your way
in."

Coleman, who looks more like someone you'd see propping up a bar at
a neighborhood dive than a police officer, played his cover to the
hilt, from his physical looks to his clothes to his background
story.

Massengill said he sat down with Coleman and worked out a detailed
background all the way back to birth. Coleman said he worked hard to
memorize all the details, because he never knew when a casual
question about his past could trip him up.

Once Coleman got into the drug scene in Tulia, he found more than
enough motivation for busting everyone he could.

"The main reason I did this was the kids," Coleman said. "They were
dealing to a lot of kids. When I found out these guys were dealing
right next to the schools, I knew that whatever it took I was going
to bust them."

Coleman estimated that the majority of the buys he made in Tulia
came from dealers working in drug-free zones. Catching them in
drug-free zones let authorities upgrade the charges to a first
degree felony. But Coleman said it was an unpleasant surprise
because it meant that the dealers were targeting kids.

It didn't take too much time for Coleman to realize he was isolated.
The only people who knew what Coleman was doing were Massengill,
Stewart and task force head Lt. Mike Amos. Coleman had to keep an
eye on the police as well as the dealers, because it didn't take
many drug buys before he aroused the suspicions of local law
enforcement. At one point, Coleman even wound up in jail in Tulia,
although the matter got sorted out.

Coleman said the work was often dangerous, pointing to the time he
had a gun drawn on him and the several instances where he nearly was
beaten up. The macho drug culture breeds a sense of paranoia and
aggressiveness, which makes it dangerous for anyone involved,
especially an undercover agent.

"You've got to have a lot of street sense and common sense, and
you've got to go with your feelings," Coleman said. "If you feel
like something's going to go wrong, you've got to trust that,
because you're probably right."

Another aspect of the drug culture that made things tense for
Coleman was the prevalence of guns.

"I went into this one guy's house to buy an 8-ball (1/8 ounce of
cocaine) and he had an AK-47 (a Russian-designed assault rifle)
sitting right out on his couch," Coleman said. "So I just said OK
and picked it up and leaned it against the wall so I could sit down
and do the deal.

"You've got to be careful in this business, because if you say the
wrong thing or do the wrong thing, guns get pulled real quick."

Coleman said he didn't want to get too specific about how he worked
undercover, but he did say that he would drive out to Tulia and hang
around people he was looking to bust. Once he gained their trust, he
would approach the dealer about buying drugs and set up an exchange.
After Coleman made the buy, he took the drugs back to the police
department, along with whatever other evidence he was able to
gather, and booked it.

Massengill said most operations of this type last about six months,
but when Coleman and his bosses sat down to analyze the results
after six months, they decided to extend it.

"We took a look at the results we were getting, and it didn't seem
like it was slowing down any," Massengill said. "We looked real hard
at the safety issue, too, and that was looking good, so we decided
to keep going to see what else we could get."

Coleman eventually wound up buying more than $20,000 worth of drugs.
Cocaine was the most prevalent drug, and Coleman said the majority
of his buys were in quantities of less than 1/2 ounce. Although
Coleman busted many small-time dealers, he also tried to focus on
larger suppliers and managed to reel in about eight dealers who
bought drugs in large quantities elsewhere to be sold on Tulia
streets.

Toward the end of the operation, Coleman said he could feel himself
getting eager to wrap things up and make some arrests.

"I was just doing my job," Coleman said. "I had the attitude that
every day I went to work that there was a storm coming and it just
hadn't gotten there yet. But I knew that when that storm hit, a lot
of dealers were going to get swept away by it."

That storm finally hit Swisher County July 23 when Coleman and his
fellow task force members, along with about a dozen other law
enforcement agencies, began rounding up suspects. By the time the
day was over, officers had picked up 33 suspects in Swisher County
along with another dozen or so in the Amarillo area. The arrests
were just a portion of the 132 indictments handed down by a Swisher
County grand jury.

Coleman said the huge roundup was a satisfactory end to his time
spent undercover. Although Coleman was the key to the arrests, he
played down his role and chose to share the credit with his fellow
task force members and other law enforcement officers.

Amos, however, was not nearly as circumspect about Coleman's
contribution.

"It takes a lot of guts to go into a situation like that all by
yourself," Amos said at the time of the arrests. "When you're
dealing with some of the people he was dealing with and knowing that
there is no way to get anyone to back you up, you've got to be
pretty brave to keep doing that job."