NO FEDERAL CHARGES AGAINST BNI AGENTS

A federal investigation of the state attorney general's drug task force in
Philadelphia -- prompted by allegations that agents gave false testimony
about drug seizures and arrests -- has ended with a decision not to
prosecute any agents. U.S. Attorney Michael R. Stiles said yesterday that
the two-year probe of the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation (BNI) "did not
result in the filing of criminal charges."

The city and federal court systems were rocked three years ago by
disclosures that cast doubt on the credibility of some agents from the
bureau's Philadelphia office, established in 1989.

More than 125 drug cases, some involving large quantities of heroin and
cocaine, were tossed out by judges or withdrawn by prosecutors because of
doubts about whether the BNI agents had legal grounds to make arrests and
drug seizures.

At one point in 1996, Stiles and Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M.
Abraham stopped prosecuting cases handled by the BNI agents under suspicion.

Stiles, in a two-paragraph statement yesterday, said his office "has closed
its investigation of the conduct of agents of the Philadelphia office
(Region IX) of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Narcotics Investigation . . .
without the filing of criminal charges against any person."

The statement said "no further comment . . . is permissible under Justice
Department standards."

Among the BNI cases dumped in 1996 was one involving a Dominican man
allegedly caught with 2.2 pounds of pure cocaine. A federal judge freed the
suspect, Miguel Tapia, after prosecutors said a BNI agent had admitted to
them that his testimony about an informant in the case had been "a
misstatement."

In another case the same year, federal prosecutors asked a judge to
overturn a drug-trafficking conviction "in the interest of justice."
Defense lawyers had contended that a BNI agent lied to make it appear that
he had probable cause to make the arrest. The suspect, Melvin Santiago, was
freed after serving one year of a five-year prison term.

In a case in Common Pleas Court, the District Attorney's Office withdrew
charges against five suspects allegedly arrested with $200,000 worth of
cocaine. BNI agents said they made the arrests after seeing drugs in plain
view in a house where one of the defendants lived. The D.A.'s Office,
evidently not believing that account, told a judge that the case "lacked
prosecutorial merit."

After the problems surfaced, then-State Attorney General Tom Corbett
reshuffled the local BNI office, on Essington Avenue near Philadelphia
International Airport, replacing its director and transferring several agents.

Later, at a state Senate subcommittee hearing on BNI, an alleged drug
dealer whose case was dropped testified that he had been framed by the
state agents.

Corbett's successor, Michael Fisher, said through a spokesman yesterday
that he was "pleased that the U.S. Attorney and the FBI have concluded
their investigation without the filing of any criminal charges."

Fisher's spokesman said that BNI last year added 25 new agents to the
Philadelphia office. He said the agents have been working jointly with the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and
Philadelphia police.