ATLANTAN TURNED DRUGS TO RICHES

A 35-year-old Atlanta man Wednesday admitted in federal court that he
sold drugs siphoned out of the Memphis Police Department property room
by civilian employees.

Eric Brown pleaded guilty to the conspiracy that put drugs slated for
disposal in drug dealers' hands. He also pleaded guilty to hiding more
than $200,000 in drug profits by depositing the money in amounts less
than $10,000 to avoid reporting requirements.

After a chance drug bust of a drug carrier by Arkansas State Police in
an unrelated case, local officers were led to Brown and an associate,
Darren Cox.

After officers watched him deliver two kilograms of cocaine, Cox was
arrested and told police about the property-room thefts and Brown's
involvement, prosecutors said.

When questioned later, Brown admitted he had received drugs stolen by
a civilian property-room supervisor, Asst. U.S. Atty. Tom Colthurst
said.

That supervisor, Kenneth Dansberry, admitted his guilt when arrested
last September, saying he stole drugs so many times he couldn't
remember them all.

Dansberry pleaded guilty to an array of drug charges in
January.

Dansberry said he stole drugs and sold them to a former civilian
property-room employee, Patrick Maxwell, one of 16 people charged last
year in the conspiracy.

Maxwell sold drugs to Brown and others, court documents
say.

Dansberry outlined how he and another civilian property-room employee
once sold a 10-pound box of cocaine to a drug dealer off the Shelby
County Jail's loading dock. He told police he once took 200 pounds of
marijuana slated for destruction and sold it at the police impound lot
near the old International Harvester site.

Maxwell hasn't pleaded guilty to the charges. However, Colthurst said
in court Wednesday that Maxwell also admitted his guilt when he was
interviewed last September.

Brown is to be sentenced Sept. 21. He has agreed to give up any claim
to several luxury automobiles seized by federal agents.