Sheriff’s Drug Teams Broken Up in Inquiry Fallout

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has disbanded its four elite narcotics squads after the recent suspensions of nine officers suspected of stealing money seized during drug raids, The Times confirmed Wednesday.

At least 30 officers were moved this week from the Narcotics Bureau headquarters in Whittier to stations throughout the county, according to union representatives and the chairman of the county Board of Supervisors.

The Sheriff’s Department has refused to comment on the reassignments, but sources said that the narcotics teams were dispersed as a precaution until local and federal investigations into alleged money skimming are complete.

Believed Temporary

“I understand that it is a temporary reassignment,” said Lt. Lee Mealy, president of the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Assn., which represents some of the reassigned officers. “They apparently began Monday.”

Richard Shinee, chief attorney for the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, said there was “absolutely no evidence” that the officers were transferred because they were suspected of wrongdoing.

Shinee said the reassignment did not constitute a demotion and that wages and benefits are not affected.

The Times confirmed independently through calls to sheriff’s stations that officers from all three major narcotics units began working this week at a number of stations throughout the county.

Ed Edelman, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said that he met with Sheriff Sherman Block late Wednesday and that the sheriff told him the major units have been broken up, but the deputies still are working as narcotics officers.

“People were reassigned to stations, but they can follow leads anywhere,” Edelman said.

“I have been reassured that there is no diminution by the Sheriff’s Department in going after major narcotics dealers,” he said.

No Explanation Given

Edelman said the sheriff did not explain his reasons for disbanding the units and refused to discuss the status of the investigation.

The dismantled units were each composed of about 10 officers, most of them experienced in narcotics investigations. These specially trained teams, equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipment, have investigated the most important drug distribution and money-laundering cases handled by the department.

The department’s other narcotics officers are assigned to individual stations throughout the county and generally work smaller drug cases, including street sales.

Sept. 1 Suspensions

One of the four elite teams was taken out of service Sept. 1 when all nine of its members--eight deputies and their sergeant--were suspended on suspicion of stealing tens of thousands of dollars seized in drug raids during the last year. No charges have been filed.

The suspended officers are Deputies Terrell H. Amers, James R. Bauder, Nancy A. Brown, Eufrasio G. Cortez, Ronald E. Daub, John C. Dickenson, Daniel M. Garner and Michael J. Kaliterna and Sgt. Robert Sobel. The officers are being paid, but they have surrendered their badges and guns.

The Sheriff’s Department is analyzing cases assigned to the four “major violators” narcotics teams and deciding how to proceed with them, sources said.

Some of the officers’ unmarked cars have been taken from them, a narcotics investigator said.

Members of the three reassigned teams will work as station-level narcotics officers, sources said.

‘Major Rethinking’

The reassignments show that the Sheriff’s Department “is going through a major rethinking of how they operate (narcotics investigations),” said one source familiar with the major narcotics units, which had expanded from one unit in 1980 to the present four units.

A member of one of the teams, reached at his new assignment at the Lomita station, said he could not say whether the arrangement is permanent.

“I don’t know,” he responded, “and I couldn’t say if I did.” He referred questions to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau, which, along with Block and Undersheriff Robert A. Edmonds, has repeatedly refused comment on the new assignments.

It was not immediately clear what impact the reassignments will have on crime-fighting efforts in the region, which federal officials say is the entry point for 40% of the nation’s cocaine.

“That’s obviously a major shake-up, (and) it would have a pretty major impact in Southern California, because they were one of the big enforcement groups in the area,” said Brea Police Capt. Jim Oman, whose department has participated frequently in sheriff’s raids.

Little Impact Expected

But spokesmen for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Customs Service, which also have worked closely with sheriff’s investigators, said disbanding the four teams would not have a significant impact on the federal agencies’ operations.

Deputy Chief Glenn Levant, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s narcotics division, said that other law enforcement agencies that participate in a “narcotics information network” have continued to share their intelligence on drug dealers with the Sheriff’s Department. Levant said his own department is still working cases with sheriff’s narcotics officers.

“I don’t think this will result in anything negative,” he said. “I would be absolutely shocked if this had any impact on our major cases. What I think is happening is that they’re just sorting things out until they complete their investigation.”

Depending on how the shake-up ends, it could hurt the Sheriff’s Department financially if it reduces its seizures of cash and property in drug raids.

Claim on Assets

Seizures have been a boon to local police agencies since passage of a federal law in 1984 that allows the agencies to claim as much as 90% of the assets they seize in criminal investigations.

The Sheriff’s Department reported seizing more than $33 million in cash during drug raids in 1988, and a large part of that will eventually be returned to the department. In fact, the department’s anti-drug efforts are funded in part with seized money, and the most lucrative seizures have usually been made by the teams being disbanded.

The Sheriff’s Department would not provide figures on the size of its Narcotic’s Bureau budget, but the county budget for 1989-90 shows that all six of the sheriff’s criminal investigative bureaus, including narcotics, have a total budget of about $42 million. The budget also reports that about $14 million is available in a separate special fund from seizures in drug raids.

“Maybe the feds will just take it all over, but I don’t think the sheriff is going to let all that easy money go,” said David A. Elden, a well-known defense attorney in drug cases.