POLICE CHIEF DEFENDS USE OF PAID INFORMANT IN FAKE DRUGS CASE

DALLAS (AP) - Police officials admitted Monday they paid a confidential
informant $200,000 for information leading to dozens of drug busts, only to
find out later that some of the confiscated substances were fake.

Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton said the unidentified informant still
works for the department and passed a polygraph test after saying he did
not know the drugs weren't real. The department will not ask to have any of
the $200,000 returned, Bolton said.

The department is reviewing its narcotics operation, but Bolton said he has
no preliminary evidence of departmental wrongdoing.

"If there are any improprieties we will deal with it," he said during a
news conference Monday afternoon.

The informant, whose name was withheld by police, assisted in 78 drug buys
over the past two years, leading to 35 arrests. He was the department's
most frequently used informant, said deputy police chief John Martinez.

Of those arrests, charges against four people were dropped after it was
revealed the drugs were fake. Charges against five others have been
downgraded to allegations of distributing simulated drugs.

The disclosure came after a drug suspect contacted local media with
complaints that he had been framed by police and that the substance he
initially was charged with dealing was pulverized sheet rock.