Temptation too great for narc

Plea expected in DEA pot case

by Jim Smith
Daily News Staff Writer

For a cop who was tempted late in his career to traffic in marijuana, the
assignment was ideal.

Back in 1992, Michael J. McCue was a veteran Philadelphia police officer
working on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force, a trusted,
highly regarded foot soldier in the neverending narcotics wars, one of
about two dozen city cops on the elite undercover squad.

One of his more menial jobs was to destroy marijuana that was no longer
needed as evidence in criminal cases.

A lack of oversight by federal authorities on routine evidence destruction
trips was apparently too much of a temptation for McCue to resist.

That June, McCue, a 17year veteran of the force, stole about 70 pounds of
the drug and, with the help of "at least one other individual," sold the
stash to others instead of burning it in an incinerator in Harrisburg.

At the time, marijuana was selling for at least $1,200 a pound, so the
stolen stash was worth a minimum of $84,000 on the black market. McCue, 40,
who had worked on the DEA task force since 1987, was charged in federal
court yesterday with distribution of marijuana. He has agreed to plead
guilty at a later date.

McCue's case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jay C. Waldman. The
pleabargained singlecount drugtrafficking charge carries a maximum
prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine, according to court papers
filed by Faye S. Ehrenstamm, a prosecutor with the U.S. Justice
Department's Public Integrity Section in Washington.

McCue resigned from the force in July 1994, reportedly after an informant
tipped DEA to the drug theft, and is now working as a cook.

The case stems from a longrunning investigation by FBI agents Roxanne West
and James McAleer.

It's the second time in recent years that a trusted lawenforcement insider
in Philadelphia has been caught redhanded dealing in stolen drugs.

In 1993 and 1994, thenFBI agent Kenneth Withers stole more than 90 pounds
of heroin and more than 10 pounds of cocaine worth more than $180 million
from the FBI evidence room in Philadelphia and sold 13 pounds of heroin and
all the cocaine to drug dealers in Philadelphia, New York and Boston for
$77,000.

Withers pleaded guilty and was jailed for 25 years in 1995 by U.S. District
Judge Clarence C. Newcomer for theft of government property and drug
trafficking.