50 at Sea World Suspended in Drug Investigation

About 50 Sea World employees have been suspended indefinitely, and more may be suspended this week in connection with an internal probe of theft and drug use and sales at the private marine park, a park spokesman said Monday.

Dan LeBlanc said about 50 of Sea World’s 2,000 year-round employees were suspended with pay last week. Of those, some were suspected of breaking company policy and others were simply witnesses to the alleged violations, which LeBlanc said were uncovered in all areas of the park.

“Fortunately, (the violations) never affected visitor safety or the care of our animals,” he said, adding that the investigation and further suspensions will be completed this week. “It’s not concluded yet, but I expect, when it is finished, it will be in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 people.”

The investigation, which LeBlanc said was begun last summer, was conducted by Narcorp, a private detective firm that specializes in undercover narcotics enforcement. He would not specify what Narcorp uncovered, but said several Sea World policies had been violated.

“We obviously have rules against use of drugs at the park, rules against stealing company property or money,” LeBlanc said. “And these are rules that are being enforced now.”

Because most of those suspended are in their teens and early 20s, LeBlanc said, Sea World has not yet decided whether to contact police.

“Primarily what we’re dealing with here is young people, not minors but 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds, and we’re sensitive to that. In many cases, it was probably more a lack of judgment than true moral problems,” he said.

“At this point, I don’t even want to call them crimes. No one has been charged with anything so far,” LeBlanc said, adding that Sea World is considering paying for drug rehabilitation for some of the suspended employees, in accord with the park’s longstanding policy.

LeBlanc declined to describe the undercover tactics used by Narcorp investigators, but he said he does not believe employees’ rights were infringed upon.

“We constantly use secret shoppers and the like to keep our park safe,” he said, referring to security officers dressed in street clothes who keep an eye out for shoplifters or other wrongdoers. “Everyone that works here knows that. It’s even brought up in employee orientation.”

Sea World is not the first animal park to hire a private firm to root out wrongdoing on its premises. In December, 1988, after a four-month investigation by Kennedy Consulting Investigations, the San Diego Zoological Society fired 19 employees for alleged drug use or theft. Five of the employees were reinstated.

After Narcorp completed a five-month, $40,000 investigation for the city of Poway, four city employees were arrested and fired and another 15 were placed on administrative leave. But the company’s founder, Hal Phenix, acknowledged that two Narcorp investigators smoked marijuana and ingested cocaine with some of the people arrested.