COP PLAYS REBELLIOUS STUDENT TO SET UP SCHOOL DRUG BUSTS

Her attitude and dress fooled all

After four months of undercover work by a 19-year-old rookie on her first
assignment, police have arrested 25 San Benito High School students, two of
them adults, in what apparently is the largest drug sting in the school's
history.

More suspects were arrested off the Hollister campus, bringing the total to
23 juveniles and nine adults.

"It's a tragedy for those kids and families. They will suffer greatly as a
result of this, and I am sorry, but the whole campus has to be taken care
of," Principal Tim Shellito said.

Two of the adults, Jesus Alejandro Cordova and Felipe Vallejo, both of
Hollister, were being held in lieu of $100,000 bail after the mass arrests
at the school Wednesday. The names of the other adults were not immediately
available, and the Mercury News is not identifying the juvenile suspects
because of their ages.

All were arrested on suspicion of selling drugs. The students also were
given five-day suspensions and face possible expulsion.

Police said they served search warrants on several houses in the Hollister
area and one in Oakland, netting one-third of a pound of methamphetamines,
2,500 hits of LSD, 20 vials of what's believed to be Ecstasy, two rifles,
two sawed-off shotguns and a .38-caliber handgun.

The drug-buy program was conducted at the request of San Benito High School
officials who two years ago noticed an increase in drug-related problems.
They said they also believed that drug dealers were operating across the
street from the school and that down the block, other dealers had weapons.

Two agencies

The sting operation was coordinated by Hollister police and agents of UNET,
the Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team, of the state Bureau of Narcotics
Enforcement.

But authorities say the key to the success of the San Benito High School
operation was Hollister police officer Alisse Hinton. Nineteen at the time,
she passed for a 17-year-old high school senior with an attitude and a
hunger for drugs.

While there were a couple of tense moments during the four-month operation,
Hinton said, she never once feared for her safety.

"I wasn't scared at all because I knew the people I was working with were
looking out for me," Hinton said.

Hinton played her role to the hilt. She got into trouble with school
officials so often she spent hours on trash patrol. She was suspended once
and expelled once and was issued numerous detentions for not completing
assignments, playing hooky or cussing out teachers or the vice principal.

Only two school administrators knew of the ruse. No teachers were told. No
members of the Hollister department other than Chief J.W. "Bill" Pierpoint
knew of her role.

Her new Mustang, baggy clothes and slang and her willingness to spend money
had campus and off-campus drug dealers eager to do business with her,
authorities said.

In all, she made 65 buys in four months, mostly on campus, according to
Cmdr. Bob Cook of the narcotics unit. Hinton even worked her undercover
role during Christmas break, making two buys. At all times, she wore a wire
and had backup nearby.

Pierpoint said one of the more anxious moments during the four months was
when backup officers in an unmarked car had to tail her all the way to
Oakland for a buy because she was being driven there by four suspects.

Secret hiring

Hinton was recruited for the Hollister force right out of the police
academy at Monterey Peninsula College and sworn in, secretly, by Pierpoint
last June. She spent the summer in undercover training.

In September, while still 19, she enrolled as a transfer senior at San
Benito High. She turned 20 in October.

She said she was impressed by two campus supervisors who went out of their
way to help her, believing she was a troubled and troublesome student.