3 Ex-U.S. Drug Agents Charged With IRS Fraud

Three former Drug Enforcement Administration agents were charged Tuesday with conspiring to launder several hundred thousands dollars through banks in Switzerland while they worked for the federal agency in Los Angeles.

A federal source close to the case said, “It’s safe to say that the money relates to drug trafficking on their part.”

John Jackson, 39, of Claremont, and Wayne Countryman, 45, of Walnut, were arrested at their homes. The U.S. attorney’s office said the third man, Darnell Garcia, 41, of Rancho Palos Verdes, is a fugitive.

Tax Evasion Alleged

The three were named in a criminal complaint alleging that the ex-agents laundered more than $600,000 and conspired to evade Internal Revenue Service taxes.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Joyce A. Karlin would not discuss the possible source of the money. But she said in a supporting memorandum that she expects a final federal grand jury indictment of the three defendants to include charges of conspiracy to possess cocaine with intention to sell.

More arrests were expected, according to officials.

“This is a narcotics and money laundering investigation which involves several individuals in addition to those named in this complaint,” she said. “These individuals included convicted felons with arrest histories dating back more than 20 years.”

Three-Year Probe

The investigation, pursued by the DEA and IRS for more than three years, was temporarily halted so a complaint could be filed when agents became convinced that Garcia intended to leave the country for Spain, Karlin said.

“Somehow, he heard of his impending arrest,” Karlin told U.S. Magistrate George H. King Tuesday afternoon. “He did not go home yesterday.”

The former agents are accused of using aliases and false Social Security numbers to purchase numerous cashier’s checks with cash and then transferring the funds to accounts in Swiss banks.

The complaint charges Garcia with laundering $387,000, Jackson with more than $189,000 and Countryman, $31,000. Garcia also is accused of transferring $420,000 to a Santa Monica bank from Switzerland, while Jackson is charged with moving $110,000 from a Swiss bank to Los Angeles.

The three traveled together and separately to Switzerland on nine occasions between 1985 and 1987, Karlin said.

Garcia was a DEA agent from 1978 until he resigned in September, 1987. Jackson resigned from the agency in March, 1986, after more than 13 years, and Countryman was an agent from January, 1977, to October, 1986, when he was granted a disability retirement because of a back injury.

King released Countryman on $125,000 bail, secured by his home, on Tuesday. But King ordered Jackson into custody without bail after a separate hearing in which Karlin charged that Jackson had associated with known narcotics traffickers and was a danger to the community.

Reactions to the indictments in the DEA’s Los Angeles office, where the three former agents were described as “pretty decent agents,” was one of shock and anger.

While a DEA spokesman would not discuss the case, other agents expressed the view that the charges could create an image of wide-scale corruption among federal drug agents.

“It gives us a black eye,” said one agent. “We have to bear the guilt, a piece of it. What they’ve done will make our job that much more difficult.”

In Washington, DEA Administrator John C. Lawn issued a statement saying that the DEA’s investigation into the activities of the three former agents began in 1985 and “reveals the integrity” of the DEA’s internal policing mechanisms.

“While three former employees have been charged, the focus should remain on those DEA men and women who risk their lives daily to enforce the law against anyone who violates the law,” Lawn said.