Seized in Raids : Police Seek Bigger Share of Drug Cash

An anonymous tip led Glendale narcotics investigators in December to a downtown apartment where they found $141,000 in cash and two men who were apparently on their way to Colombia. No drugs were found, though one of the department’s trained dogs sniffed the money and indicated that the bills carried the scent of narcotics.

The officers knew they did not have enough evidence to hold the two suspected drug couriers. “So in lieu of arresting them,” said Glendale Police Sgt. Mark Distaso, head of the department’s drug enforcement detail, “we took the money.”

Police were depending upon an 18-month-old federal law that authorizes local agencies to seize and eventually keep as much as 80% of the assets taken from suspected drug traffickers. And--although many of the seizures, including the $141,000 taken by Glendale police, are being contested in federal courts--police across Southern California are looking forward to hauling in cars, property and millions of dollars that authorities say are the proceeds from the nation’s multibillion-dollar illegal drug trade.

So far this year, local and federal agencies have seized a record amount of drugs and cash, officials said. Since October, more than 1,300 kilos of cocaine and more than $30 million have been recovered by federal agencies in seven Southern California counties north of San Diego, said Dwight McKinney, a Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman.

Programs Threatened

Because it is easier for local agencies to recoup a larger share of drug monies under the federal law, most police departments have stopped using California’s forfeiture procedure. The abandonment of the state program threatens two drug prevention programs that are financed with forfeited drug money.

The federal forfeiture program has been given major emphasis by the Reagan Administration, which pushed for passage of the 1984 Comprehensive Crime Control Act, said Brad Cates, director of the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture office. The law authorized the federal government to share drug forfeitures with local police departments that participate in joint investigations with agencies such as the DEA and the FBI.

“Forfeitures are a way to bring total justice to a criminal case,” Cates said. “People get tired of seeing a guy walk away with one or two years in prison. When you confiscate money, cars, planes or a ranch, people feel that justice is being served.”

Since the program began, Glendale police have kept two cars used by dealers; and out of the nearly $1 million in drug money seized since the law went into effect, they expect to recoup more than $500,000 later this year.

Generally, seized assets are divided among participating agencies based on the amount of work each does on the case. Dividing the booty generally follows an informal “gentlemen’s agreement,” said Distaso of the Glendale Police Department.

However, some conflicts have arisen over sharing the monies.

In Orange County, some officials were surprised to learn that their efforts in certain drug cases were being played down in comparison to the role played by the Sheriff’s Department--until they found out why.

“We had a case where one of our lawyers participated in the preparation of a bust by doing the search warrant and some other paper work that allowed for some cash (about $15,000) to be seized,” recalled Deputy Dist. Atty. William Evans. “So we applied for 5% of the cash as our share under the federal program, only to find out that the Sheriff’s Department was claiming 10% based on the efforts of an officer named Winston.”

Evans later learned that Winston is the name of the narcotics dog that sniffed out the confiscated money and narcotics. “What irks me is that the U.S. attorney’s office says we shouldn’t get a dime for preparing the search warrant that allowed the dog to go into the place, but the dog gets 10%,” Evans said.

$22 Million Seized

During 1985 and so far in 1986, Los Angeles Police Department investigators have seized more than $22 million in drug-related money, while the drug teams of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have seized approximately $4 million, officials said.

So far, however, only the Los Angeles, Simi Valley and West Covina police departments have actually received payments under the federal program. LAPD received $1.4 million and Simi Valley and West Covina each received about $360,000 from a 1984 joint investigation of a cocaine ring.

The three departments report that they are spending the proceeds on expensive high-tech electronics that police say are already being used by high-rolling drug dealers.

“All the little things that you see on TV that nobody really has, we got,” said Sgt. Lee Rossman, head of the West Covina narcotics detail. “It was like Christmas.”

Rossman’s department now boasts sophisticated recording devices, portable cellular telephones, video-camera equipment and even infrared night-vision goggles. In Simi Valley, drug forfeiture money was spent on upgrading the department’s computers and the purchase of electronic gear for covert surveilance, new cars and radio equipment.

Dual Use for Funds

Although most agencies say that advanced electronic gear has become a necessary tool for fighting drug traffickers, a recently completed report by the Presidential Commission on Organized Crime suggests that forfeiture money should be spent equally on drug prevention programs, commission spokesman Arthur Brill said.

“You have to continue the law enforcement effort and keep the pressure on traffickers,” Brill said. “But much more attention must be put on prevention to reduce demand in this country.”

The Justice Department has received more than 600 applications to share in the estimated $350 million of drug money and assets seized nationwide since the procedure for local police agencies to apply for a share in drug proceeds was established last August, Cates said.

About 10% of the cases are contested in federal court by those who claim that the money and assets were earned legitimately, Cates said. Though small in number, those cases involve about half of the total value of seizures made.

The hearings are separate from any criminal hearing. And unlike California’s more restrictive forfeiture law, the civil hearings held in federal court carry a less strict burden of proof.

‘Reasonable Doubt’

“The state requires a criminal conviction, so it must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Eldon Pritikin, who handles forfeiture cases for police throughout the county. “Under the federal law, the burden of proof is a preponderance of evidence.”

Although the federal law was designed to prevent local agencies from bypassing the state forfeiture procedure simply to collect greater revenues, most police departments contacted say that federal agencies routinely accept drug-money seizures greater than $10,000.

In Los Angeles County, requests for state forfeiture money have dropped from $3.3 million in 1984, to $1.2 million last year, records show. This year, Pritikin said, no agency has filed for reimbursement from the state.

Currently, there are about $9 million in federal refunds pending for agencies in Los Angeles County, compared to $900,000 in state refunds, said John Lovell, special counsel for the district attorney’s office.

The main reason local agencies are avoiding the state program, officials say, is because the state pays local agencies only the direct costs of conducting the investigation. Cars, for example, are sold by the state after a criminal conviction and the proceeds are used to pay back police departments. Under federal law, agencies can keep the vehicles.

Called ‘Ineffective’

“The state forfeiture law is universally viewed by law enforcement as ineffective,” said Brian Taugher, special assistant to the state attorney general.

That assessment worries state officials who use the bulk of the state’s drug forfeiture funds to support drug-prevention programs and a statewide mental health program for elementary school children.

The state’s Narcotics Assistance and Relinquishment by Criminal Offender fund, which shares half the state forfeiture fund and is used to provide grants to local agencies, has dropped from a 1984 total of $442,000 to a balance of $111,000, Taugher said.

And a state mental health program, financed by seized drug assets and designed to help kindergarten through third-grade students stay away from drugs, may also be jeopardized by the decline in state forfeiture requests, officials acknowledged.

Would Change Law

Assemblyman Gary A. Condit (D-Ceres) has introduced a bill that would amend the state forfeiture law to more closely resemble the federal law. For example, the bill would allow the state to seize property and other real assets equal to the amount earned by drug traffickers without having to prove that the assets were actually purchased with drug profits.

Glendale’s Distaso said the forfeiture law has created enthusiasm among his officers. But realistically, he added, some big-time dealers will view forfeitures as just another cost of doing business.

“Major dealers may be able to chalk up $141,000 as a business loss,” Distaso said. “It will hurt them, but many will be able to go on dealing. The only way to really stop it is to wipe out the demand.”

Times staff writer Jeffrey Perlman in Orange County assisted in this report.