UNDERCOVER DRUG DEALS CAN GO BAD

BRADENTON -- In police undercover drug deals, there's always a chance for
danger when an officer plays actor for an evening.

In Manatee, like other counties, these deals often unfold in mall parking
lots and in bars and restaurants, well-traveled places where the unknowing
public is often nearby.

Authorities, however, insist the deal-making is well-planned and safe.

In the latest case, sheriff's detectives busted two Bradenton men July 22
following a months-long investigation that took officers into the Bradenton
Ale House and to parking lots outside DeSoto Square Mall and the McDonald's
in the 4700 block of U.S. 41.

"When we go out there's a lot of forethought that goes into it," the head
of the sheriff's narcotics unit, Capt. Pat Bartholomew, said Wednesday. "We
don't go out on a wing and a prayer."

Narcotics detectives, he said, will scrap a deal if the threat to public
safety outweighs the value of the evidence collected in a transaction.

But sometimes things turn deadly.

About a year ago, Bradenton resident Bethel Clayton Buzbee III, 26, got
spooked after a heroin deal outside the Walgreens store on Manatee Avenue
West at 43rd Street.

City police used a confidential informant to make the deal there. Squad
cars waited nearby to arrest Buzbee after the drug exchange.

Officers trailed Buzbee and the informant as they drove to a nearby bar. At
some point Buzbee realized police were following him and sped away.

Buzbee forced one patrol car off the road and shot at others during the
high-speed chase through residential neighborhoods.

He was armed with at least three guns.

Finally hemmed in, he killed himself with a single shot to his head as the
informant sat in the seat next to him.

Officers don't want to manipulate a drug suspect too much -- they don't
like to dictate, for instance, where the dope deal takes place -- for fear
the person will sniff out a narc.

Authorities last week charged Bradenton residents Mark A. Fredenburg and
William P. Schaeffer with selling Ecstasy, a popular hallucinogen. The
arrest wrapped up an undercover investigation that began in September.

Most of the deals happened at night, according to sheriff's reports.

Fredenburg, detectives said, arranged the meetings -- like the one in the
McDonald's parking lot.

Lifelong Bradenton resident Annie Carroll dropped by there for lunch Wednesday.

"Drugs are everywhere now," said Carroll, 58, a registered nurse who had a
double-cheeseburger and a soda Wednesday. "Wherever the drugs are," the
police "need to be."

She said she doesn't feel threatened by the fact authorities stage deals in
parking lots or near the mall.

Carroll said she assumes police will be careful. "A drug arrest is not
worth the life of an innocent bystander," she said.

For the most part, the deals happen swiftly. Blink and you won't know what
happened.

Detectives pulled into the McDonald's parking lot to await Fredenburg,
according to reports. A red Dodge Durango pulled alongside the undercover car.

The detective walked to the passenger window of the sport utility vehicle
to take the stash -- 20 Ecstasy pills for $240.

"You may be three or four cars away and not know what's going on,"
Bradenton Police Maj. J.J. Lewis said.