OFFICERS EASILY BLEND INTO SCHOOL DRUG SCENE

Narcotics: Undercover, they make 228 buys on L.A. campuses in a five-month
period. They identify twice as many dealers as in a similar sweep last year.

Over the last five months, undercover Los Angeles police officers have made
more than 200 drug buys at area high schools, department officials said
Wednesday.

Officers posing as students said they easily purchased marijuana, LSD and
cocaine at a number of local campuses. The operation, they said, shows that
drug use continues to plague the city's secondary schools.

For Officer Eric Eppolito, a slender, boyishlooking 23yearold, the task of
fitting in and buying drugs was fairly simple.

"You could buy [drugs] in the gym, in the bleachers, in the hallways, by
the lockers," he said. "Any part of the school, you're going to find drugs.
It's unfortunate." Eppolito bought drugs from 57 people - mostly students -
at University High School in West Los Angeles. He said there were occasions
when students became suspicious of him, but he managed to deflect their
concerns.

"Your job is to get them to think you're one them, that you want drugs,"
said Eppolito, who is going back to a patrol assignment. "I had to be an
actor." During his undercover assignment, Eppolito attended classes like
the students. His teachers were unaware he was a police officer. He even
did homework at times, but, like other undercover officers, was careful not
to excel in class and blow his cover.

"We weren't on the honor roll," said Eppolito, wearing loose-fitting khaki
pants and a white sweatshirt at a news conference about the operation,
showing how he blended in on campus.

Undercover officers this year found that marijuana remains the drug of
choice on campus. More than $20,000 worth of marijuana was seized during
the operation, which involved 228 drug purchases. Of the 189 dealers
identified by the undercover officers, 184 are students, and most of them
are juveniles. Thirty suspects are alleged gang members, police said.

Capt. Kirk Albanese, the commanding officer of the Police Department's
juvenile division, said officers started arresting suspects in April. Other
arrests still are pending, and investigations are continuing in some cases.

For example, he said, a 16-year-old student accused of dealing drugs was
found to have a gun at his house, which the student said was given to him
for protection by the person who supplied him with the drugs. Police are
searching for the supplier, Albanese said.

In a sign that drug use may be getting worse on campus, the officers this
year found nearly twice as many dealers as they did last year over a
similar time period. Among the schools targeted this year were Franklin
High, Gardena High and North Hollywood High.

The so-called School Buy Program was established in 1974 and has proved to
be an effective method of combating drug sales on and around the city's
high school campuses, police said.

Twelve years ago, the program was mired in controversy when a female
undercover officer allegedly maintained an "improper" romantic relationship
with a Granada Hills High School football player, whom she later arrested.
While some civil libertarians have challenged such undercover operations as
a violation of the students' rights and privacy, the courts have upheld
their legality. Some critics contend that undercover programs overly punish
and stigmatize students, few of whom are serious drug dealers.

Police and school officials said that the undercover operations are just
one of many tools - including educational programs - aimed at curbing drug
use and sales on campus.

Albanese said he hopes the recent operation "sends a strong message" to
students in every high school that the person "seated next to you, in front
of you, or behind you in class may be a Los Angeles police officer."
Schools, he added, "are not a place for narcotics use or sale."