FORMER INFORMANT SUES FBI FOR $1M

LOS ANGELES -(AP)- A former FBI informant is suing the federal agency,
claiming it abandoned him after he infiltrated a violent drug cartel in
Mexico.

Avery "Skip" Ensley, 56, alleges the FBI failed to pay more than $1 million
he had been promised from seized assets linked to the investigation into the
Arrellano Felix syndicate. He sued in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on
Friday.

"One of the reasons I'm going forward with this thing is that I want other
people to know the FBI does not take care of its people," Ensley said. "My
experience is that they will put anybody at risk for their own benefit."

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment, citing policy not to discuss pending
litigation.

The lawsuit claims Ensley began as an informant in 1987, when he told FBI
agents that a man shot and killed by police in Upland was the brother of a
drug trafficker named Luis Valenzuela, the head of the Castro drug
organization. The syndicate ran Los Angeles operations for the Arellano
Felix cartel. Ensley knew of Valenzuela's activities because the drug
dealer's brother was married to Ensley's wife's sister. "When I learned of
these drug connections, I couldn't look at myself in the mirror knowing I
had access to this information," said Ensley, an Arizona resident who had
been a police officer in Oregon and police chief in North Sioux City, S.D.

The lawsuit claims the FBI assured the couple that the government "would do
everything it could to protect them." It also claimed that FBI agents told
the Ensleys they would be "well compensated" with 10 percent of all cash
seized and 10 percent of the value of drugs collected, including black tar
heroin bought in 1997 for $24,000.

Ensley made more than 15 trips to Mexico, and his evidence helped secure
court-ordered wiretaps and recordings used during trial.

Because of their covert roles, Ensley and his wife claim they lost two
homes, a trucking business and a construction company in South Dakota, and
other business ventures in Oregon and Fresno.

"The Ensleys accepted these adverse financial consequences because FBI
agents repeatedly told them that they would be compensated for their
efforts," the lawsuit says.

Their attorney, Darius Nickerson, said they received less than $50,000 even
though their information led to seizure of at least $12 million in cash and
more than 1,200 kilograms of cocaine.