Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jan 2000
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) 
Copyright: 2000 by The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. 
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Author: Peter Hermann ( Sun staff writer Ivan Penn
contributed to this article)

OFFICER ARRESTED ON DRUG CHARGES 

Federal Agents Say Suspect Delivered Cocaine Packages

A Baltimore police officer was in custody yesterday after he was
arrested by federal agents who charged him with delivering 2-pound
cocaine shipments for a suspected drug organization.

Officer James Scott Fullwood, 34, assigned to the Southeastern
District, was being held by the U.S. marshal's office pending a
detention hearing scheduled for Monday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

Stephen M. Schenning, first assistant U.S. attorney for Maryland, said
Fullwood, a 13-year veteran, was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a
bowling alley on Harford Road in Baltimore County by federal Drug
Enforcement Administration agents and charged with possession of
cocaine with intent to distribute.

"I've often said we need to do a better job of policing our police,"
Mayor Martin O'Malley said last night. "You always have these problems
when you have human beings in police uniforms."

City and federal law enforcement officials confirmed the arrest last
night, but court documents detailing the investigation were not
immediately available.

Schenning said Fullwood had been under investigation for some time and
is charged with "working as a guard and a guy who would transport
kilos for a drug organization."

Officials said Fullwood was arrested after DEA agents received a tip
that a package of drugs was to be picked up at the bowling alley.
Schenning said agents seized a 2.2-pound package of cocaine that
tested 10 percent pure.

Police Commissioner Ronald L. Daniel said he had not read the
complaint and could offer no details beyond relating the official
charges. "I think that federal drug charges are serious charges," he
said.

No relatives of Fullwood's or lawyers representing him could be
reached for comment last night. The phone at the officer's last known
home address in Perry Hall has been disconnected.

The last significant drug case against a Baltimore police officer
concluded in May 1998 when Erick McCrary of the Eastern District, was
sentenced to five years in federal prison for conspiring with a drug
lord to abduct and kill a narcotics dealer.

McCrary was convicted of being closely allied with drug operatives by
tipping them off to police raids and accepting bribes to fix arrests,
all to help a dealer who ran a $30,00-a-day cocaine and heroin ring
linked to a dozen killings.

Authorities were unable to say last night whether the charges in the
most recent case involve such an intricate scheme.

Maj. George L. Klein, the Southeastern District commander, said
allegations arose from the suspect's colleagues, "and we immediately
looked into it and forwarded it to internal affairs."

Klein said the case involves the transportation of drugs in Baltimore
and in Baltimore County, and that there are many people involved.
Police said only Fullwood has been arrested.

"It's very important to get across to the public that this so-called
blue wall of silence is not a wall," Klein said. "We got information,
and we took care of business. We're not going to tolerate this from
our own." 
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