Ex-DEA Agent Seeks Use of Seized Funds for Trial

A federal judge in Los Angeles asked prosecutors and defense attorneys in the narcotics trafficking trial of a former U.S. drug agent to try to work out an agreement that would allow the defendant to help pay for his defense by using money he allegedly made smuggling gold into this country.

If an agreement can be reached, U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter said, he would consider allowing up to $150,000 to be used to pay defense costs for former Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Darnell Garcia, 43.

Taxpayers will pay “through the nose” for Garcia’s defense if prosecutors and defense attorneys fail to reach agreement, Hatter said.

Mark Overland, Garcia’s attorney, said the former drug agent had more than $4 million in bank holdings seized in Luxembourg, but that more than $150,000 of that money is unrelated to the drug charges Garcia faces.

“There is evidence that Mr. Garcia was involved in extensive gold and jewelry transactions unrelated to these charges,” he said.

Prosecutors maintain that those transactions were acts of smuggling gold into the United States. Italian jeweler Pietro Saltarelli testified in a sworn deposition that Garcia smuggled gold and jewelry into this country for him between 1983 and 1987. Assistant U.S. Atty. Stefan D. Stein said the government’s position is that “these are illegal proceeds no matter how you cut it, whether they come from narcotics trafficking or jewelry smuggling.”

In court Monday, Overland said Garcia’s Rancho Palos Verdes home has been seized and Garcia is unable to pay for his defense. He said afterward that he was asking Hatter to order the government to request that funds deposited in Garcia’s Luxembourg account before October, 1984, be allowed to be used for defense and investigative costs.

Stein told Hatter that there was probable cause to believe that Garcia engaged in narcotics trafficking prior to October, 1984, and that the request for money deposited before that date was inappropriate.

Prosecutors allege that Garcia was involved in the theft of $150,000 in heroin from the DEA’s Los Angeles evidence vaults in October, 1984.

A federal grand jury in 1988 charged Garcia and two other former DEA agents, John Jackson, 40, of Claremont, and Wayne Countryman, 47, of Walnut, with participating in a drug-trafficking and money-laundering scheme.

Countryman and Jackson have pleaded guilty to numerous charges. Garcia faces six counts--including heroin trafficking and providing DEA intelligence information to suspected drug dealers--when his trial begins Oct. 9.