Pubdate: Sun, 16 Jul 2000
Source: The Sun News (SC)
Copyright: 2000 Sun Publishing Co.
Contact:  P.O. Box 406, Myrtle Beach, SC 29578-0406
Feedback: http://www.thesunnews.com/cust/editorial.htm
Website: http://www.thesunnews.com/
Author: David Scott

DRUG INFORMANT LIES PUT CASES IN DANGER

ST. LOUIS - In 16 years on the street, working across the country as a
Drug Enforcement Administration informant, Andrew Chambers put up some
big numbers.

Seized: 1.5 tons of cocaine and $6 million in assets. Arrested and
convicted: 445 drug dealers and other criminals. Earned: at least $2.2
million in rewards and other compensation. But Chambers' detractors
can point to some big numbers of their own: He has been arrested at
least 16 times, and lied over and over on the witness stand about
those arrests - as well as about his educational background and
whether he had paid taxes on his DEA earnings.

Because of those lies, prosecutors have dropped charges against 15
alleged drug dealers around the country, and at least 12 others who
were convicted in part on Chambers' testimony are demanding release.

Those numbers could grow. The DEA is going through each transcript of
every trial Chambers has ever testified at, looking for lies.

"It's information that we think we have an ethical responsibility, if
not a legal responsibility, to be able to provide to prosecutors who
still have pending cases," said DEA spokesman Terry Parham. "This
information, on top of that, needs to be turned over to the defense."

The DEA insists Chambers never lied about the drug deals he busted up.
But Dean Steward, the former federal public defender generally
credited with bringing Chambers' lying to light, questioned that.

"When you got a guy that would lie about just about everything else,
why do you think he would tell the truth about what led up to the
deal?" Steward said.

In any case, Chambers' lies deprived defense attorneys of information
they were legally entitled to have to try to undermine his credibility
in front of the jury.

The DEA considers Chambers, 43, the most valuable undercover informant
in its history. But he was dropped in February, and his actions are
forcing the agency to take another look at how it uses informants in
the war on drugs. One thing the DEA has determined is that Chambers
started lying in 1985, one year after he began work as an informant.
The agency also determined that DEA agents knew he was lying in 1985
but continued to use him without telling prosecutors and defense
attorneys about the problem.

There is no telephone listing for Chambers in the St. Louis area. But
Chambers appeared recently on ABC's "20/20" and took questions during
an online chat after the broadcast. He insisted he lied only about
himself. "I was truthful about what happened when the deal was going
on," he said. "I didn't think that what I said about myself was that
important. Everything that happened during the deal was recorded on
video and I was accompanied by federal agents. The guys were drug dealers."

According to Parham, Chambers was embarrassed to admit he had been
convicted of soliciting a prostitute, and arrested on suspicion of
assault, forgery, writing bad checks and impersonating a federal agent.

Chambers had also testified that he had paid his income taxes; it
turns out he didn't pay taxes on $100,000 the DEA had paid him over
six years. He had also testified that he studied criminal justice at
Iowa Western Community College; the school has no record of his attending.

The high-school dropout from suburban St. Louis got his start with the
DEA after a stint in the Marines. He walked in to the St. Louis field
office seeking to join up as an agent. Without a four-year college
degree, Chambers wasn't eligible. But the DEA signed him up as an informant.

Chambers' work took him all over the country conducting "reverse
sting" operations. He would fly into a city, and using rolls of cash,
brand-name clothing and luxury cars, make contact with drug dealers
and sell them cocaine. The DEA would make the arrest and pay Chambers
for his expenses and his information. His highest fee: $250,000.

"He built his reputation on being good - based on the results being
achieved in both federal and state courts," Parham said. "The fact is,
he had an innate ability to infiltrate some of our country's most
dangerous and violent trafficking organizations."
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