DRUG BUSTS BASED ON PLANTED CHALK PROBED

DALLAS (AP) - The FBI is investigating reports that paid police informants
purchased white pool hall chalk to plant on innocent people before drug
arrests.

Inquiries into the series of drug busts by Dallas police have resulted in
the dismissal of more than 60 felony drug charges and suspension of two
undercover detectives.

FBI agents confiscated chalk cones from the home of a jailed informant and
collected receipts for large quantities of the substance from a supply
house, based on the statements of informant Reyes Roberto Rodriguez,
federal Assistant Public Defender Karl Rupp said.

Rupp identified Rodriguez as one of several informants who acted as a
subcontractor to the Police Department's primary informant, Enrique Alonso.
Rodriguez is being held on federal immigration charges.