CHECK THEFTS BOUGHT DRUGS, POLICE ALLEGE

Investigators Say Bank May Have Lost $200,000

It starts, simply enough, with stolen checkbooks. It ends, commonly
enough, with cocaine on Baltimore streets. Along the way, federal
prosecutors say, two men accused of drug dealing may have swindled a
bank out of nearly $200,000.

Amos Clarke, 21, and Daiwor Togbah Woah-Tee, 26, are in jail awaiting
a Friday arraignment in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, each charged
with a single count of distributing cocaine.

Court documents detail a scheme by which the suspects allegedly raised
front money for drugs by stealing checks and recruiting addicts to
cash them at First Union Bank branches in Maryland and Washington.

Investigators said the checks were kept under $500 to avoid suspicion.
They said addicts were piled into vans and driven from bank to bank,
often cashing checks against unsuspecting account holders 20 to 30
times a day.

Police estimate First Union's loss at up to $200,000 in a scheme
lending institutions call "Run on the bank." Detectives said the money
was used to buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine in New
York, which was sold to street dealers in Baltimore.

Paul Hazelhurst, a federal public defender who represents Clarke,
declined to comment on the case yesterday. A lawyer for Woah-Tee could
not be reached to comment.

Danielle Deabler, a spokeswoman for First Union, said corporate policy
forbids her to comment on pending investigations.

Clarke and Woah-Tee were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury.
Investigators with High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federal law
enforcement task force, said they seized $7,000 and numerous stolen
checkbooks from one of the suspect's houses in the 6000 block of
Arizona Ave.

Prosecutors and police declined to comment, but court documents say
Detective Keith Gladstone infiltrated the small organization and
opened up bogus bank accounts at First Union.

During the two-month investigation that began in March, the documents
say that Gladstone was paid $50 for every check he successfully
cashed. He would then give the remaining money, typically $450 on each
check, to the suspects. In one day, the documents say, checks were
cashed at First Union branches on Sinclair Lane and at two other banks
in Washington.

Police said they arrested the suspects at a Northeast Baltimore
parking lot at Frankford Avenue and Belair Road after setting up an
undercover drug deal for 500 grams of cocaine worth an estimated $14,000.