MBN CHIEF SAYS HE DOESN'T THINK LOTT IS INVOLVED IN PLANE TRANSFER

JACKSON (AP) -- State Bureau of Narcotics chief Frank Melton said Friday he
believes U.S. Sen. Trent Lott was not involved in the transfer of MBN
planes to agencies on the Gulf Coast.

Melton said during a news conference that the planes were not Lott's to
transfer.

The state auditor's office and the Bureau of Narcotics are investigating
how the planes were given to the Harrison County sheriff's office and the
Hancock County Port Authority.

Melton said he does not know when the investigation will be finished, but
when it is, he will release a complete, unedited report. Some MBN files
were missing when the investigation began.

An internal report obtained last week by The Associated Press quotes a
confidential source as saying the transfers in 1999 and 2000 were allegedly
made at the request of a former aide to Lott, R-Miss.

In 1999, the bureau transferred an $800,000 Beechcraft King Air to the
Harrison County Sheriff's Office. The next year, the bureau transferred a
Cessna 206 to the Hancock County Port Authority. Both transfers were made
at no cost.

Lee Youngblood, a spokesman for the Lott, attended Melton's news conference
Friday and said he had little to add to what Melton said.

"He did indicate that Senator Lott is not the subject of any kind of
investigation and this is basically MBN probing itself and its own past
actions," Youngblood said. "I think that certainly that speaks for itself."

Melton said MBN is enacting tighter controls of its own inventory. He said
he learned from an agent Thursday that the bureau owns two boats that were
confiscated in drug arrests, but the boats have remained on the Gulf Coast.

Melton said he wants the boats either stored in Jackson or used for making
arrests on the Mississippi River.