$3M IN DRUGS, $147,000 CASH MISSING FROM EVIDENCE ROOM

NASHVILLE - An investigation into evidence room abuses at the Memphis
Police Department has revealed that nearly $3 million in drugs, $147,000 in
cash and dozens of seized guns couldn't be located.

The details were released last week as part of a state audit prepared to
help federal authorities investigating the case.

Police officials, who initially discovered the problem and asked for help
from the FBI, said the investigation has sent a message through the department.

"What it has done, it has helped to impress on everybody our commitment to
integrity," said police Deputy Director Ray Schwill. "We wanted to do the
right thing."

So far, 16 people, including two civilian employees but no commissioned
police officers, have been charged in a scheme that links thefts from the
evidence room to a cocaine dealing ring. Five of those defendants have
pleaded guilty.

The audit by state Comptroller John Morgan found that 116.6 kilograms of
cocaine, with a street value estimated at $2,332,408, and 559.9 pounds of
marijuana, with a street value estimated at $447,876, "could not be
accounted for."

Morgan said about $147,000 in cash and 66 guns also could not be found.

The FBI said it's possible all of the items noted in the audit were stolen,
but couldn't offer specifics on their ongoing investigation that could lead
to more arrests.

"I'm not suggesting that the FBI has accounted for each and every item
missing yet," said George Bolds, Memphis FBI spokesman.

Schwill said he assumes it's been stolen, not just lost in a bad accounting
system. "Obviously we had a problem, a pretty big problem," he said.

The state auditors said the Memphis Police Department lacked control over
the evidence room, citing inadequate procedures for destroying narcotics
and computer records that could be altered by evidence room clerks.

Morgan said auditors warned the department about problems in its evidence
room in 1999, three years before they began investigating the thefts. Those
problems weren't fixed, the auditors wrote.

In a response to the auditors, police Director James Bolden said changes -
including better oversight and a surveillance camera - are being made to
make sure similar situations can't happen again.

Other improvements include an independent authority to make sure
court-ordered destruction of evidence actually takes place.

Police also promised an annual inventory of the evidence room to make sure
drugs and guns don't disappear again.

The whole case was sparked by the arrest of drug dealer Eric Brown, 35, who
exposed the theft of drugs and guns from the Memphis Police Department.

He has said he sold drugs stolen from the police "property room," where
evidence from criminal investigations is stored.