FEDS SEARCH HOMES OF 2 IN PROBE OF CRITTENDEN SHERIFF'S DRUG UNIT

FBI and IRS agents executed search warrants at the homes of a member and a
former member of the Crittenden County Sheriff's Drug Task Force on
Thursday in a widening federal probe of interstate drug enforcement units.

Sheriff's deputy Barry A. Davis's home on Richland Drive in West Memphis
and former deputy Louis F. Pirani's home on Geelan Drive in Marion were
pored over for more than five hours as curious neighbors stopped to see
what was up. Neither man was arrested, and Davis remains on active duty
with the sheriff's department. Agents were seen leaving Davis's home with
guns, including one equipped with a scope.

The searches come a week after Crittenden County's Quorum Court, similar to
a county commission, voted to cut off funding to the sheriff's drug
interdiction effort. Sheriff Dick Busby notified seven employees whose
salaries are funded by the drug task force that they would be terminated as
of June 30 because of the Quorum Court's action. One of those notified was
Davis.

In the midst of the ongoing controversy, County Judge Melton Holt, whose
job is equivalent to a county administrator's, on Monday wrote to the lead
FBI agent in the probe asking "that the investigation proceed with haste,"
according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Commercial Appeal. Holt
wrote that rumors are flying across the county and "the public has a right
to know and innocent employees need to be exonerated, while guilty parties
need to be charged and prosecuted."

And in another development, longtime Quorum Court member Vera Simonetti, a
frequent critic of the drug task force who called for its complete
elimination at the court's May 28 meeting, was pulled over on an interstate
service road by deputy Barry Davis on Tuesday evening and given a traffic
citation for a burned-out taillight.

Simonetti played down the incident, saying there had been no confrontation
and that the taillight had in fact gone out and has been replaced. She
appears in West Memphis Municipal Court on the infraction on June 24.

In Little Rock on Thursday, both U.S. Atty. H.E. 'Bud' Cummins and FBI
spokesman Brian Marshall said they could not comment on the ongoing
investigation, which is believed to be focused on cash seizures from
suspected drug couriers in a county that has pulled $5.4 million in cash
from the interstates in the past 2d years.

Three West Memphis police officers were fired last year for violating
procedures involving seized cash after two of them were caught in FBI sting
operations. Those two also had their homes searched by federal agents.

None of the former West Memphis officers has been charged.

Davis, 33, who makes $29,493 as a sheriff's deputy, lives in a house on a
double lot in West Memphis appraised by the county at $280,950.

Records also show Davis and his wife own a 2001 Honda motorcycle valued at
$6,350, a 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix worth $8,950, a 1985 Toyota pickup valued
at $2,050 and a 2000 Chevy Tahoe valued at $22,200.

Davis is known to fly a single-engine 1960 Cessna airplane titled in his
father's name worth $35,500 that's parked at the West Memphis Municipal
Airport. His father's student pilot license has expired and he can't
legally fly, Federal Aviation Administration records show. Both Davis and
Pirani have current pilot's licenses.

When Pirani, 37, left the sheriff's office earlier this year he was making
the same $29,493 as Davis. According to his former boss, Drug Task Force
commander Mickey Thornton, Pirani now works as a federal air marshal. A for
sale sign sits in his front yard.

Records show the red-brick house with the brick and wrought iron privacy
fence, pool and detached garage is appraised at $195,400. In addition,
records show he and his wife own a 2000 Pontiac Bonneville worth $14,700, a
2000 Ford F-250 pickup valued at $19,300 and a 1997 Harley Davidson
motorcycle worth $9,150.

Davis, whose father-in-law is second-in-command of the eight-county
Arkansas State Police troop based in Forrest City, is a longtime member of
the sheriff's interstate drug interdiction effort.

Davis was one of several members of a previous incarnation of the county's
drug task force listed as suspects and investigated for theft in 1993.
Pros. Atty. Brent Davis asked for that investigation, conducted by the
Arkansas State Police but decided not to pursue criminal charges. By the
time the federal agents drove up to Davis's house with their
tinted-windowed cars at 9:56 Thursday morning, the federal probe had been
under way for more than 15 months. West Memphis Police Chief Robert H.
Paudert has said he went to the FBI with his suspicions shortly after
taking over the department and has been assisting when asked for help.

An FBI sting operation involving $45,000 in counted money "seized" by West
Memphis patrolman Joseph W. Applegate on Interstate 40 in March 2001 led to
his firing in October.

Applegate's official report of that broken taillight traffic stop, as well
as a forfeiture lawsuit on file in Marion, indicate marijuana was found
with the cash, making it subject to forfeiture under state law.

However, Paudert said the FBI assured him the pickup and cash were clean
and did not contain a trace of marijuana.

In another instance, money counted by the FBI and seized by West Memphis
Sgt. E. A. 'Tony' Bradley on the parking lot of the Southland Greyhound
Park, came up short, according to West Memphis personnel records. Bradley
also was fired.