Justice Dept. Assailed Over Delay in LAPD Drug Funds

Sen. Alan Cranston on Saturday blamed “confusion and chaos” at the Justice Department for delays in paying more than $14 million it owes the Los Angeles Police Department for cash seized from drug traffickers.

In a letter to Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, which the California Democrat released at a news conference, Cranston said the delays are “undermining the war on drugs in California” and urged Meese to expedite payment. The money is part of $68 million in drug assets confiscated by police agencies throughout the country--in cooperation with federal agents--which has remained logjammed in the Justice Department’s Forfeiture Fund, Cranston said.

Since February, the LAPD has received only about $1.2 million of the $15.8 million due it, the letter went on to say. “At the current rate, it will be June, 1991, before the LAPD gets all that backlogged money,” Cranston said.

“Los Angeles and local law enforcement people across the country need their money now to combat drug violence and street gangs,” Cranston told the news conference. “If we’re going to win the war against drugs, we’ve got to win the war against bureaucratic red tape and inefficiency.

“And to win that war, we’ve got to get rid of the confusion and chaos and demoralization in the Justice Department” under Meese, Cranston said, referring to repeated calls for Meese’s resignation amid allegations of conflicts of interest.

Meese “should have never been put in that office and now should be gotten out,” Cranston said. He predicted that recent resignations of top Justice Department officials would only aggravate the problem.