DEA'S EFFORTS IN D.C. OFFICE CRITICIZED BY POLICE OFFICIALS

FBI's Shift to Terrorism Work Hurts Fight on Drugs, Some Say

The Washington division of the Drug Enforcement Administration has been
criticized by the DEA's headquarters for a "steady decline" in new cases
and arrests, and some area law enforcement officials contend that the
agency isn't doing enough to target major violent drug gangs in the District.

The DEA's performance has disappointed some officials who want the agency
to step up now that the FBI is devoting more of its attention to terrorism
matters. In recent years, the FBI targeted major violent drug gangs in the
District while the DEA chose to deal more with mid-level cases, according
to the U.S. attorney's office and others.

"We would like to see the DEA step into the void," said the District's U.S.
attorney, Roscoe C. Howard Jr. "We have talked to them as an office, and
it's something that would be worthwhile, certainly not only of benefit to
us but of benefit to our city."

Although the Washington division has developed some major cases over the
years, many in law enforcement say it isn't measuring up to its potential.
More than a dozen DEA agents and law enforcement officials complained that
the DEA has too often avoided complicated cases in Washington and some
surrounding communities because the division is overly cautious or
unwilling to devote the time needed to develop bigger cases. The division
covers the District, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

"There seems to be almost a fear of 'what if something goes wrong?' " one
DEA agent said. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he feared
reprisals. "There's always the possibility of something going wrong. . . .
If you start what-iffing yourself, you don't get things done."

R.C. Gamble, who became chief of the Washington division in April 2001,
said the agency is doing the best with the resources it has. "This office
is doing a tremendous job," said Gamble, a 31-year veteran of the DEA.
"You've got so many competing priorities. The agency as a whole needs more
resources."

Large-scale drug gangs have plagued many D.C. neighborhoods for years and
contribute to the city's rising homicide rate. Putting them out of business
requires a commitment of personnel to conduct extensive surveillance and
wiretaps.

A Dec. 10 memo from DEA headquarters sharply criticized the division for
the decline in new cases, as well as a drop in arrests and seizures of
assets in the past few years. The memo came after a routine inspection last
fall.

The memo also cited 13 instances in which the Washington division violated
administrative procedures in handling evidence, sensitive materials,
fugitives and investigative files.

"The Washington division exhibits a lack of proper management oversight in
performing DEA's mission. . . . I consider the deficiencies addressed
herein to be a very serious matter," wrote Asa Hutchinson, then the DEA's
director. "I expect that you and your staff will promptly take the
appropriate action required to resolve the deficiencies cited."

The number of cases handled by the Washington division dropped from 676 in
2000 to 602 in 2002, according to DEA figures. The number of arrests fell
from 2,258 in 2000 to 1,629 in 2002. Seizure of assets also declined, going
from $19.2 million to $17.3 million.

The DEA nationwide experienced similar declines with the exception of asset
seizures, which rose agency-wide.

Gamble downplayed the memo, saying that the administrative violations were
isolated incidents and minor, such as the late filing of a report.

He insisted that the statistics are misleading and said he was bothered
that "not once was I asked [by inspectors] why the numbers are down." He
said one reason arrest figures were higher in 2000 than 2002 was because
his office participated in joint operations with Prince George's County
police and other local forces that led to mass arrests.

Gamble said the Washington division employs about 170 agents, of which 60
are managers. More than 30 of the street agents are assigned to the
District and its surrounding suburbs in Maryland and Virginia, but four of
those agents are on leave, he said.

"We are asked to do a whole lot with a little," he said.

Gamble said the division is shifting priorities, as dictated by
headquarters, by putting more emphasis on bigger-impact cases. He said his
agents also are focusing more on assisting other DEA divisions including
those in New York and Miami. Drugs sold in Washington frequently come from
those places, he said.

Those familiar with the headquarters' inspection said the statistics can be
a fair measure of performance if balanced with other considerations. They
say inspectors normally review some closed and pending cases and take into
account the scope, impact and quality of those probes before drawing
conclusions about statistics.

Still, Gamble maintained that a more telling statistic is the number of new
wiretap cases. Last year, there were 51, up from 46 in 2000, a sign that
the office is focusing more on in-depth cases, he said.

Gamble's office has registered some successes, including the breakup of a
crack cocaine ring that dominated the Hume Spring section of northern
Alexandria. A probe by the DEA and a local task force, dubbed Operation
Dirty Dozen, resulted in 70 convictions and the recent indictment of two
Denver brothers charged as suppliers.

A DEA task force group also busted a major ecstasy drug organization last
year in Northern Virginia that also supplied District clubs. And last year
in east Baltimore DEA agents and a task force helped break up the Lafayette
Project Boys, a thriving drug gang authorities suspect of killing five people.

Gamble disputes complaints by agents that his office is not aggressive
enough or is overly cautious.

"I think that's an unfair statement," he said during one of two lengthy
interviews in his Northwest Washington office. "We do have a responsibility
that folks aren't running into harm's way."

Hutchinson is now a top official with the new Department of Homeland
Security. Through a spokesman, he declined comment on his memo and referred
questions to DEA headquarters.

Will Glaspy, a DEA spokesman at headquarters, downplayed the tone of the
memo, saying the evaluation in no way suggests the Washington division is
failing.

"We consider ourselves the best drug investigators in the world, and the
only way to maintain that is to be very critical of ourselves and try to
keep improving."

Although some law enforcement officials in Washington and Baltimore
criticized the DEA for taking on too many run-of-the-mill cases, U.S.
Attorney Paul J. McNulty of the Eastern District of Virginia applauded the
agency's performance.

"My experience is they do all types of cases," he said. "They do take a lot
of quick hits, reactive-type cases, what we call in Virginia communities,
impact cases. We value that which takes a handful of crack dealers off the
street corner of a neighborhood."

The DEA here, McNulty said, "is covering the whole field."

"We've been accomplishing a lot, and they are making a lot of good cases,"
he said. "Can we do better? Sure we can do a better job."

In Baltimore, U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio said he met with Gamble and
the top agent in the Baltimore office after he took office in September
2001 and conveyed his desire to go after bigger cases to meet a mandate
from the Bush administration.

He acknowledged that not all the agents have complied, but overall, he
said, "the Maryland DEA has really stepped up to the plate. I've asked them
to do bigger targets, and they've responded."

Not all are so laudatory.

"They don't seem to have a whole lot of agents interested in doing the
really large cases," said one federal official in the Baltimore area. "They
want to do the large targets, but they don't want to spend the time."

In the District, Gamble questioned whether the FBI's shift to
anti-terrorism investigations had actually left a void in drug enforcement
activities. He said the agency has taken on any District cases that have
come its way.

But some law enforcement officials and federal agents disagree.

"The FBI has left a huge gap," said one DEA agent, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity. "The FBI did in D.C. what the DEA did in New York,
Chicago and Detroit" by going after the big violent drug gangs, he said.