DEALER 'SOLD LSD FOR POLICE'

A DRUG dealer has told a police corruption inquiry he had sold LSD on
behalf of officers and paid them bribes in a bid to get lighter sentences.
The drug dealer turned police informant, dubbed P4, told the Police
Integrity Commission hearing in Sydney he paid former Drug Enforcement
Agency detectives about $45,000 for "letters of assistance" in order to get
a lighter sentence for himself and his sister.

The Operation Florida hearing is investigating allegations of corruption by
DEA detectives and the use of "letters of assistance" or "letters of
comfort" tendered by police in sentencing procedures.

The documents detail alleged assistance provided by informants and have at
times led to a 60 per cent reduction in sentences.

P4 today told the hearing he had dug up drug money from hidden backyard
burial spots to pay former Detective Sergeant Guy Wilding - a sometime
consultant on the TV drama Stingers - and Detective Senior Constable
Michael Kempnich for the letters when he and his sisters were up on drug
charges.

The drug dealer also told how he had dobbed in his friend and flatmate for
being in possession of 10,000 LSD tablets.

When asked by counsel assisting the Commission, Mark Buscomb, why he would
inform detectives about the activities of his friend he said it was for money.

"In the past they (the police) mentioned if I had information about the
obtaining of drugs ... they'd give me some money or I'd be able to sell
(drugs) for them," P4 said.

He alleged that a few days later Wilding provided him with LSD to sell. P4
said he had assumed it had come from his flatmate, dubbed F3.

However P4 today said he did not get a cut of the $10,000 garnered from the
sale of the illicit drug.

The hearing before Acting Commissioner Tim Sage is continuing.