DEA SUPERVISOR CONVICTED OF STEALING $120,000 IN DRUG FUNDS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor has
been convicted of stealing more than $120,000 that was supposed to be used
to buy evidence and pay informants.

Clifford T. Shibata, a 24-year DEA employee who ran the agency's
Clandestine Laboratory Group in San Francisco before his suspension in
1996, was convicted of embezzlement Tuesday by a federal court jury,
Sentencing is scheduled in September.

Prosecutors said Shibata, facing financial trouble and bitter about being
passed over for a promotion, took money between 1994 and 1996 from a DEA
account that was used for undercover purchases of drugs as evidence and for
payments to confidential informants.

He routinely forged the signatures of DEA agents on forms declaring the
agents had used money from the account for authorized purposes, prosecutors
said. They said he obtained sums of up to $6,450 at a time and converted
the money to personal use, depositing some of it in his checking account.

Defense lawyer Stuart Hanlon suggested others may have forged the
signatures. Shibata denied the thefts and testified he failed to recognize
that there was anything wrong with the paperwork.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski