DRUG BUREAU'S STRANGE QUITS; SITES FUNDING, PERSONAL VENDETTA

JACKSON, Miss. - Don Strange Jr. has resigned as chief of the Mississippi
Bureau of Narcotics, saying his decision stems from inadequate funding and
his belief that his enemies targeted his son in a personal vendetta.

Strange leaves Friday for his new job with the Air Marshal Service in
Atlanta. Gov. Ronnie Musgrove will announce replacement for the $60,000 a
year job shortly, said Lee Ann Mayo, the governor's spokeswoman.

"There are people in state law enforcement that aren't team players,"
Strange said. "They'd run the Bureau of Narcotics by putting it under the
Highway Patrol, but that's not a good idea."

The heads of the MBN and Highway Patrol both report to the governor but
fall under the Department of Public Safety.

In three years, Strange, 53, overhauled the Bureau of Narcotics.

The agency dismantled several drug organizations. Strange also got a $1
million federal grant for the state's first methamphetamine initiative and
found funding for a helicopter in a highly successful marijuana eradication
program.

Strange praised the governor's efforts to persuade the Legislature to give
the bureau $14 million. On Tuesday, the Legislative Budget Committee
recommended $9.3 million for 2004.

Strange also said Wednesday he believes his son was fired from a state job
as a way to get at him. Mayo said Strange never mentioned his son's
situation in giving his resignation on Wednesday.

Chris Strange, 31, a former investigator with Attorney General Mike Moore's
Office of Public Integrity, says he was called unproductive and fired in
October.

He got two weeks notice, later extended to 30 days after his father met
with Moore. Shortly afterward, Don Strange met with Bill East, the head of
investigations for Public Integrity.

Five days after that meeting, Chris Strange said, he was in Covington
County when "my car got broken into and $1,930 in drug buy money was stolen
from the glove compartment.

"I think they think I stole the money to get back at them for firing me,"
he said. "That would be the dumbest thing I could imagine doing."

He said he offered to pay back the money, if he violated policy. Instead,
his last paycheck was withheld, he said.