Pubdate: Sun, 20 Jan 2002
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press
Author: Jamie Stengle
Note: Associated Press writer Dino Chiecchi contributed to this report

HISPANICS TARGETED IN FAKE DRUG CASES

Hispanics may have been targeted by police in narcotics cases based on fake 
drugs, their attorneys allege. Some of the defendants were deported because 
of the drug charges.

District Attorney Bill Hill has announced that his office is working to 
dismiss 59 cases, some involving two undercover police narcotics officers, 
who have been placed on administrative leave, and at least one paid 
confidential informant who no longer works for the department.

The FBI has been asked to investigate, Hill said Friday.

Thirty-nine people had been arrested as a result of the 59 cases.

"The majority of defendants involved are Mexican nationals, which to me 
looks like they were targets," attorney Cynthia Barbare said.

Attorney Tony Wright called the cases "the epitome of racial profiling."

"The police knew they were picking on people that would be deported," he said.

Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton has said the department is reviewing 70 
narcotics buys initiated by the paid confidential informant since 1999. 
Tests on seized evidence in some of those case found no drugs or only 
minute amounts of illegal material mixed with powdered gypsum, the chalky 
material used in plaster board.

"We're watching to see how this unfolds," said Will Harrell, executive 
director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. "If all these 
cases are dismissed and these people are released, litigation may not be 
necessary."

However, Barbare said she's filing civil rights lawsuits on behalf of her 
two clients involved in fake drug cases. In both cases, lab tests revealed 
the alleged drugs were gypsum.

One of her clients, Abel Santos, 26, a mechanic at his family's shop in 
Dallas, was arrested July 16 on a charge of possession with intent to 
deliver a controlled substance over 400 grams, Barbare said.

After an informant claimed Santos had shown him drugs, police got a search 
warrant and found alleged drugs in an old pickup truck outside the garage, 
Barbare said.

A field test was positive for cocaine but lab results showed the substance 
was gypsum. The charge was dismissed Nov. 1, but Santos, who emigrated to 
the United States illegally some 15 years ago, was deported.

Santos denies ever possessing, using or selling cocaine.

"At first, I thought it was a mistake," Santos said in a telephone 
interview from Monterrey, Mexico. "This is the kind of thing that happens 
somewhere else, like in Mexico, but not in the United States."

He would like to return, but doesn't know if that's possible.

"We're trying to see what we can work out with an immigration attorney," 
Barbare said. "I don't know how successful we'll be. I think it's going to 
be difficult."
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