8 More Sheriff’s Deputies Are Suspended : Scandal: Seven deputies and a jail sergeant are being investigated for possible misconduct in the widening inquiry of money skimming in drug cases.

The 18-month law enforcement probe into misconduct by Los Angeles County sheriff’s narcotics investigators widened Wednesday as seven veteran deputies and a jail sergeant who once worked in a prestigious narcotics unit were relieved of duty, authorities said.

The eight officers are being investigated for “potential criminal misconduct,” according to a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department.

They are the latest of 26 members of the narcotics squad to have been suspended since the department first came under scrutiny in October, 1988, as part of a probe by federal agents and sheriff’s internal investigations into allegations of money skimming.

Ten of those deputies were indicted in February for stealing more than $1.4 million in seized drug money and spending it on houses, luxury cars and stocks. And two other sheriff’s narcotics officers were suspended last month for not cooperating with the money-skimming probe.

In announcing the suspensions, sheriff’s officials said that actions were taken Wednesday as “part of a continuing investigation initiated by this department involving potential criminal misconduct in our narcotics bureau.”

Asst. U.S. Atty. Thomas A. Hagemann, who has been overseeing the federal grand jury investigation in the case, refused to comment on the latest suspensions. Hagemann also declined to say whether additional indictments are expected.

The suspended officers were not identified, but other sources familiar with the case said they include former members of the Sheriff Department’s elite major narcotics teams.

The crews, which seized millions of dollars in drug money from suspected drug dealers and money launderers, were dismantled last fall in the wake of the money-skimming scandal. But federal and local investigators have continued to probe members of those teams, according to sources close to the investigation.

Undersheriff Robert Edmonds refused to describe the duties of the suspended officers, but said they were relieved of duty because investigators had uncovered allegations of money skimming and similar charges.

“Based on that . . . we were uncomfortable with them continuing to perform duties as law enforcement officers,” he said.

Edmonds said the eight officers suspended Wednesday were summoned to Santa Fe Springs City Hall, where they were relieved of their service weapons and their badges. They were then questioned by investigators, he said.

County sheriff’s spokesman Mariano Zamudio said that although the eight officers have been indefinitely removed from their assignments, “They do continue to get paid. But they are off work status as of today.”

In a brief prepared statement, Sheriff Sherman Block said: “Although we are saddened by the necessity for this action, the more than 11,000 honest and hard-working men and women of the Sheriff’s Department will continue as they have . . . to do their jobs with integrity.

“As I have repeatedly stated since I initiated this investigation in October, 1988, we are committed to a thorough and systematic inquiry.”

The scandal led judges and prosecutors to abort more than a dozen state and federal drug cases in which deputies under investigation had been key witnesses.

In the most recent case, a convicted drug dealer was released from state prison after a county Superior Court judge was told that several sheriff’s investigators who testified against the man may have falsified evidence. And the county district attorney’s office has told lawyers for four other convicted dealers that their clients may also have been convicted with falsified evidence.

One former sheriff’s investigator, Sgt. Robert R. Sobel, who pleaded guilty last month in the probe, has been implicated in three cases where tainted evidence may be a factor.

Sobel, a 19-year-veteran, has been cooperating with authorities in the money-skimming case, which has led to counts of conspiracy, theft and income tax violations against nine other sheriff’s investigators.

In a raid last fall on the homes and businesses owned by the indicted officers, federal officials and sheriff’s detectives reported seizing tens of thousands of dollars in safes, bedroom drawers and briefcases.

Sobel, a 19-year-veteran, has been cooperating with authorities in the money-skimming case, which has led to counts of conspiracy, theft and income-tax violations against nine other sheriff’s investigators.

In a raid last fall on the homes and businesses owned by the indicted officers, federal officials and sheriff’s detectives reported seizing tens of thousands of dollars in safes, drawers and briefcases.