INFORMANT IN FAKE DRUG CASES DENIES WRONGDOING

One of the informants involved in the fake drug cases handled by the Dallas
Police Department said he performed honest work for police.

The 44-year-old told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW he was tired
of being treated like a bad guy and is ready to talk to the FBI.

The FBI is investigating dozens of questionable narcotics purchases
initiated by paid confidential informants.

The informant, who was not identified by the station, said he wanted to
take a polygraph test to prove he didn't set up any innocent people in drug
cases and did not steal any money from drug dealers or police.

The man, who was arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service as an illegal immigrant, said he had been fired by police. He also
said he was shocked to find out the alleged drugs from his cases turned out
to be gypsum.

The man has been connected to more than 20 drug cases. The police chief has
said the man was the highest paid informant at $200,000. But the man said
he received no more than $50,000.

He said police never asked him if he was an illegal immigrant.

Meanwhile Tuesday, prosecutors said it took them four months to get
information from the Dallas Police Department after they questioned a large
cocaine bust in September.

Prosecutors said they didn't realize the scope of the problem until
mid-January.

"Until we got down to the point of putting together those 59 cases, we
didn't have our arms around this," First Assistant District Attorney Mike
Carnes told The Dallas Morning News in Wednesday's editions. "We were
trying to put the pieces together to figure out what the puzzle was, but we
still, in the month of January, were getting information."

In September, prosecutors said, a police detective was warned about a large
cocaine bust that involved fake drugs. But it took another four months for
police to hand over their files to help identify defendants who may have
been wrongfully accused.

Prosecutors in late September said they were seeing the bad drug cases
multiply but still didn't have the name of the primary informant.

Police spokeswoman Janice Houston declined comment Tuesday because of the
FBI investigation.

Prosecutors have dismissed 59 cases that involved two undercover officers
and four questionable confidential informants.