DEA TARGETS CITY COP

Agency says bribe crippled drug probe

NEW BEDFORD -- The federal Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating
a city police officer over allegations he took a bribe in 1996 to tip off a
cocaine dealer about a major police investigation closing in on him.

The information came to light Thursday, when the U.S. Department of Justice
announced that Mark Bulbulian, of 320 Cornell St., was implicated in the
investigation as the liaison between the officer and the dealer. He has
been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, extortion
and bribery.

The investigation into the officer comes a little more than a year after
the Bratton Report -- a comprehensive study of the New Bedford Police
Department -- found that arrests for drug trafficking and distribution were
down, and that 20.4 percent of officers believed that some other officers
were taking drugs and/or money from drug dealers.

In Mr. Bulbulian's indictment, the U.S. Attorney's office refers to the New
Bedford Police officer as "X."

According to the indictment, Mr. Bulbulian set up a meeting between
drug-dealer James A. Pike and Officer X.

The three met at Gourmet Coffee and Bagel, a small coffee shop owned by Mr.
Bulbulian's sister, located in the Accu Plaza at the junction of Routes 140
and 18.

At the coffee shop yesterday, Mr. Bulbulian's sister, Yvette, would not
comment on the case.

But according to the indictment, at that meeting, on May 9, 1996, Officer X
agreed to give Mr. Pike information about an investigation targeting him,
in exchange for one cash payment of $3,500.

Later that day, Mr. Bulbulian and Officer X met in the Silver City Galleria
in Taunton. At that meeting, Mr. Pike handed Officer X $3,500 in cash, and
Officer X told Mr. Pike about an undercover state trooper with whom Mr.
Pike had been conducting drug transactions since April 1996, according to
the indictment.

Sgt. Craig Fries, of the Bristol County District Attorney's Drug Task
Force, said his unit, which was investigating Mr. Pike in conjunction with
the DEA, immediately shut down their operation, after learning through
sources that the man had been tipped off.

"It was shut down immediately due to the danger that was involved," Sgt.
Fries said.

He said the payoff blew the cover of a lengthy operation.

"He was a rather large dealer in this area, we decided to target him,
everything was going fine. We had several buys already from him, but then
we got that information and had to shut it down," Sgt. Fries said.

Mr. Pike was arrested and charged with various drug offenses and is serving
a sentence for those crimes, Sgt. Fries said.

But, Sgt. Fries said, after the trooper's cover was blown, his unit's
involvement in the case ended.

"Once we found out that this had occurred, we had shut it down and it took
a different direction," Sgt. Fries said. "The DEA basically took it from
there as far as the investigation into the leak."

The Cape Cod office of the DEA referred all comment on the investigation to
a Boston DEA public affairs department, but calls there yesterday were not
returned.

U.S. Attorney's Office Spokesman Samantha Martin said the investigation
into Officer X is ongoing by the DEA and the IRS, but would say nothing else.

"We can't comment on anything that might be ongoing," she said.

New Bedford Police Chief Arthur J. Kelly III said Officer X is not working
at this time.

"I cannot comment on any specific personnel action that I have taken in
this matter," he said.

Mr. Pike, 37, had been previously arrested numerous times on drug related
charges.

He was indicted in October 1996 by a federal grand jury on charges that he
carried 17 ounces of cocaine aboard a single-engine plane from New Bedford
to Bangor International Airport in Maine.

According to court records, police found the cocaine and $1,692 in a search
of the plane.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski