SHERIFF'S OFFICE GETS 'WINDFALL'

Calling it an "unbelievable windfall," Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre
is planning to use some of nearly $500,000 from the federal government to
equip patrol cars.

The Sheriff's Office is getting $488,000 of $4.4 million in forfeited drug
proceeds stemming from an investigation of a marijuana trafficking and
money laundering 20 years ago.

Three other law enforcement agencies also are getting a part: $2.9 million
to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office; $488,000 to the New Orleans
Police Department; and $448,000 to the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office.

Webre said he plans to use $200,000 to match a federal grant to equip
patrol cars. He also wants to use some for direct narcotics-related
expenses since the money resulted from a case narcotics teams worked over
the years. He has not decided how the rest of the money will be spent.

"We don't want to spend it all in one year," Webre said. "I want to
acknowledge the work of the IRS and DEA who have been tracking the money
for 20 years. The drug asset forfeiting laws are working to the benefit of
law enforcement agencies."

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Capt. Alan Wall, now retired from the
Sheriff's Office, worked "Operation Grouper," a lengthy investigation
involving one of the largest marijuana trafficking and money laundering
operations in U.S. history.

The investigation resulted in the conviction of Joe Harry Pegg and Paul
Edward Hindelang Jr., in the Eastern District of Louisiana, for conspiracy
and importation of 497,671 pounds of marijuana aboard four freighters from
December 1980 to February 1981.

Agents investigated Pegg's money laundering and concealment of drug assets
throughout the 1980s and 1990s, culminating in his 1994 indictment and
conviction in the Middle District of Florida. In 1993 federal agencies
initiated civil forfeiture proceedings in the Eastern District of Louisiana
against property purchased by Pegg with drug proceeds.

In 1996 Pegg was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The
investigation resulted in $50 million in assets seized, including real
estate in the United States and bank accounts in Liechtenstein. Agencies
following the money included the Eastern District of the U.S. Attorney's
Office in Louisiana, the New Orleans office of the IRS, the Drug
Enforcement Administration and the New Orleans Field Division of the U.S.
Customs Service.