Corrupt Deputies

* Regarding your series on corruption in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (Dec. 2-4):

Three glaring points come to mind. First, the Narcotics Unit was totally concerned with quantity over quality. Instead of concentrating their efforts on arresting the head of a narcotics organization, they were after drugs and money, a useless expenditure. Two, there was a total lack of supervision in their efforts; yet nowhere in your series do we read that higher-ups were disciplined for lack of leadership.

Three, and most astonishingly, the U.S. attorney’s office cut a deal with Sgt. Robert Sobel, the leader of the unit, which allowed him to save himself. This violates all the rules of informant management. It would be like allowing (the late) Pablo Escobar to testify against the subordinates in his drug cartel in order to escape maximum punishment. Sobel was in charge and no matter how you try to soften it, he should have been held responsible.

JOSEPH GUNN

Burbank

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* Times staff writer Victor Merina has proven to be an outstanding investigative reporter. I would like to clarify two areas that Merina did not make an issue of that are extremely important:

One is the “code of silence” referred to in regard to Sgt. Sobel in the initial report. The second is that there are approximately 700 local law enforcement personnel assigned to narcotics enforcement/investigation in Southern California. These people do not deserve to have their reputations clouded by the suspicion that they may be involved in criminal activity similar to the teams Merina writes of. They all feel the pain rekindled from these articles.

If any officer/agent who ever was assigned to me or with me had the slightest cause to suspect the wrongdoing that these deputies were involved with, they never hesitated to break silence. When I recently retired, I was the senior person in the LAPD Narcotics Group, having been there since Jan. 13, 1969.

Not once did I see or hear of incidents such as “Operation Big Spender” discovered. During that time I was assigned for a number of years (unbeknown to my fellow investigators, or supervisors) to investigate the possibility of corruption. There were a series of small misconduct incidents, though no corruption was ever witnessed by me, or any of the other investigators. Please give credit, where credit is due, and that includes the many hundreds of anti-narcotics enforcers in this area, many who would surrender their very lives to assure the pursuit of their dreams: apprehending and destroying major narcotics offenders, and their poison to society.

STAN NELSON

San Pedro