Drug Loot Uses Stir Curiosity of Supervisors

The drug-forfeiture program has become big business for Orange County law enforcement officials, who predict that police agencies in the county will divvy up nearly $35 million in cash confiscated so far in narcotics busts.

An estimated $6 million of that amount has been allocated to the Sheriff’s Department--and the Board of Supervisors, often at odds with Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates over budget matters, wants to know how the money is being spent.

Under a 1984 federal law, a portion of the money seized during drug investigations is returned to local law enforcement agencies to fight drug abuse. The county Regional Narcotics Suppression Program task force was formed in 1986 to take advantage of that law, and all but four of the county’s smaller police departments participate in it and share in the proceeds.

The Sheriff’s Department has used its share of the money to pay for a presidential visit, a drug education program and a narcotics investigators’ training facility. The regional task force has spent money on such items as office supplies, rental cars for investigators, overtime pay and helicopter surveillance.

None of the supervisors have accused the sheriff or the task force of spending the money for non-drug-related items.

But they have asked for a report outlining how the money is being spent and how police agencies in other counties are spending their drug money. The report, being prepared by the county administrative office, is due in late January and was ordered in October when Gates said he could not legally use the money to pay for the county’s new genetics-testing laboratory.

“I think we got to get a handle on it,” Supervisor Don R. Roth said. “I’m in no way saying that there is anything wrong, but I think we need uniformity on how this money can be spent doing the most good. If something goes wrong, they won’t run to the auditor or the sheriff, they’ll come to the Board of Supervisors.”

Information Needed

Roth said he knows of one police department that bought guns with the drug money while other departments use it only for drug enforcement. The supervisors should be fully informed on how the money is spent--both by the sheriff’s narcotics program and the regional task force, he added.

Twenty-four federal and county law enforcement agencies staff the task force, which does surveillance work, enlists informants and makes actual narcotics raids.

The cash seized under the federal-forfeiture program comes back to the regional program headed by a 14-member executive board made up of local police chiefs, Gates and a variety of federal law enforcement officials. Some of the money is then redistributed to cities for use by their police departments.

The federal government retains 10% of the seized drug money to administer the program and the regional task force keeps 25% to finance its operation.

Sheriff’s Capt. Tim Simon, who heads the regional drug task force, said Monday that a total of $47 million had been confiscated since the regional anti-drug effort began in December, 1986, but $12 million of that was transferred to police agencies outside the county for participating in joint investigations.

So far, Simon said, the regional task force has received $7.8 million and another $27.2 million is in “the pipeline.” He said he did not know how long it would take for that money to make it through an “overburdened and bureaucratic” federal system.

About $2 million of the $7.8 million has been disbursed to the Sheriff’s Department, with local police departments getting another $4 million or so.

Simon said the Sheriff’s Department would eventually receive about $6 million of the $35 million.

“The good thing is that none of the money we spend comes from the county general fund,” Simon said. “None of it is tax dollars. All the money is seized from major drug dealers.”

Major expenditures of the sheriff’s drug-fighting money so far have included the launching of a countywide drug abuse education program along with nearly $350,000 to fix up the confiscated Rancho del Rio, a remote property near the Riverside County line which lawmen hope someday will become an international drug investigation training facility.

The task force has had $1 million-plus seizures totaling 11, Simon said. During those drug raids, agents have confiscated 11,000 pounds of cocaine.

The largest single seizure, of $5.2 million, came in early 1988 when regional narcotics agents raided residences in South Gate and Riverside. In addition to the cash, agents confiscated 18 pounds of heroin and arrested three Mexican nationals.

Simon said the county auditor-controller monitors expenditures by both the sheriff’s narcotics program and the regional drug-fighting program. The regional task force is also subject to federal and state audits, he added.

Surprise Audits

Even the Sheriff’s Department conducts surprise audits of the regional program, Simon said.

Records at the auditor’s office showed that much of the money spent by the regional task force went for day-to-day operations such as telephone bills, car rentals, overtime for agents, and, in some cases, office equipment and supplies. Bills for cellular car telephones used by drug investigators, informant payments and money used for drug buys are not itemized but are kept in what is called the 240 account.

That account can run a balance up to $1.8 million.

Rental car bills can run as high as $18,000 a month. Investigators change cars continuously to avoid detection by suspects, Simon explained.

“There’s not much glitzy stuff,” Simon said, adding that the cars that the investigators drive are like the ones driven by the average person. But he added: “When we need a stretch limo or a big Mercedes, we can rent it.”

Monthly helicopter costs for the task force can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Crowded freeways, officials said, have made the use of helicopters a must when following drug traffickers. Overtime for narcotics agents becomes a major expense because of long stakeouts during lengthy investigations.

Gates’ use of the drug money also became a focus of controversy earlier this year when it was learned that he spent thousands--the final bill was $335,061--to pay for President Bush’s visit to Rancho del Rio last April. The U.S. Justice Department determined that the financing of Bush’s anti-drug speech was a proper use of the money, but Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley said he and his colleagues “would have swallowed several times” had they known what the final cost would be.

County auditor’s records showed that $3,995 of the sheriff’s drug-fighting money was used for a catered lunch at Rancho del Rio when the President visited while tens of thousands were used to paint, fix up, and re-grade the road to the remote ranch. Another auditor’s item showed that $7,239.03 was paid to Abbey Party Rents Inc. to prepare for the Bush visit.

Another $29,083 was paid to a lumber company and $64,942 to the Ortega Rock Quarry for improvements to the ranch road.

Other bills paid out of the sheriff’s program included $3,610 for rubbish removal, $750 for laser firearms fees and $259 for a rented trailer to haul furniture to Rancho del Rio.