SHERIFF'S 'GO-FAST BOAT' BOASTS NOT BACKED BY REPORTS

Sheriff Ed Bieluch's claims that his expensive "go-fast" boat has $38
million in drug busts to its credit does not appear to be supported by drug
seizure reports.

The oceangoing boat apparently was not crucial to the seizures, which
occurred in shallow waters of the Intracoastal Waterway, according to the
reports.

Bieluch's purchase of the high-speed undercover boat last June for $158,000
raised the eyebrows of some Palm Beach County commissioners who questioned
why it was needed.

When asked about the boat again in February, Bieluch told commissioners
that the boat has been used to seize $38 million in contraband from drug
runners.

The number came from a confidential report given to Bieluch in January by
his Organized Crime Bureau, sheriff's Capt. John Carroll said Tuesday.

Carroll said the number was reasonable but he regretted the dollar figure
becoming public.

"This boat was supposed to be an undercover boat and all the county
commissioners want to do is talk about it," Carroll said. "It defeats the
whole purpose of what we want to do."

In response to a public records request from The Palm Beach Post, the
sheriff's office produced reports showing the boat has participated in
three drug busts.

The wholesale value of the drugs was $2.2 million, according to the reports.

The $38.8 million figure quoted by Bieluch uses prices of street sales to
people buying marijuana or cocaine by the gram or ounce.

Those street values, as calculated by the sheriff's office, are several
times the values that the Drug Enforcement Administration says it typically
uses.

The sheriff priced marijuana at $625 an ounce in one case, while DEA uses
$140 an ounce.

The sheriff used $5,400 to $6,000 an ounce for the street value of cocaine
in two cases, while the DEA uses about $1,000 an ounce.

The sheriff's office included in the $38.8 million the value of 44 pounds
of cocaine it withdrew from its own property room to use in a drug sting.

Another seizure of 236 pounds of cocaine, which Carroll said was worth $13
million on the street, was from a U.S. Customs and DEA bust in which the
sheriff's office played a back-up role.

A sheriff's boat, apparently the go-fast, was used to herd suspects back to
shore when they jumped off the boat at an Intracoastal dock.

The largest bust, 2,200 pounds of marijuana, was a sheriff's operation from
the start and resulted in the arrests of two men who brought the drugs to
Currie Park in West Palm Beach on a 26-foot boat.

Carroll said the drugs' street value was $22 million.

The go-fast boat participated in all of the cases, but Carroll said he
could not assert that its role was key to the busts.

He said the go-fast serves a purpose because federal agencies are more
likely to call the sheriff's office for assistance knowing it has the boat.

The boat also was key in convincing a drug running suspect last year that
the undercover sheriff's agents were drug smugglers.

The smuggler rendezvoused with the go-fast offshore and brought the cocaine
to shore -- the 44 pounds the sheriff's office had given him, valued at
$3.8 million by the agency. He was arrested there and his own $80,000 boat
was seized by the sheriff's office.

The go-fast, which specializes in high-speed chases, has not been used for
that purpose during its 20 interdiction missions so far, Carroll said.

Commissioners questioned Bieluch about the boat when he asked them in
February to endorse an even larger purchase: $572,000 for a 39-foot mobile
command bus with a bathroom and kitchen.

County Commissioner Warren Newell has had an interest in the boat since
Bieluch bought it with federal money from previous seizures.

Rather than a "90-mile-an-hour boat," a less costly boat might be as
effective for the type of seizures made by the sheriff, he said.

"It raises some serious questions as to the need of this type of vessel and
if the same thing could be accomplished with a reasonable vessel," Newell said.