2 Jail Workers Suspected of Selling Drugs

At least two of the 11 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department employees caught up in a massive credit card fraud scheme are also suspected of having sold black tar heroin inside the Twin Towers Jail, sheriff’s investigators told The Times on Thursday.

One of those under suspicion of drug dealing, according to investigators, is a retired Los Angeles police officer who joined the Sheriff’s Department in November 1997. Black tar is a smokable form of heroin.

As a result of their suspicions, investigators brought trained dogs to the jail Wednesday as deputies searched employees’ lockers. The department carried out 21 search warrants Wednesday, mostly at the homes of four deputies and seven civilian employees suspected of participating in two massive credit card fraud scams.

The searches failed to uncover narcotics at any of the locations, officials said. But the drug allegations are among the new leads that investigators are following in the unfolding crisis in the Sheriff’s Department, which runs the largest jail system in the country.

Investigators said their searches Wednesday recovered volumes of significant, dramatic evidence that will probably produce additional criminal allegations against the 11 suspects and other as yet unidentified accomplices.

“We are now actively pursuing other allegations,” said Sgt. Michael Pippin, the sheriff’s lead investigator on the case. “We’re going into another phase of this investigation. At one of the locations, we recovered some very compelling corroborative evidence that further implicates a number of our targeted employees.”

Sheriff Lee Baca said Thursday that he does not believe that “this investigation is in any way concluded,” and that he expects others within the department to be implicated.

While Baca did not address the drug allegations, other sheriff’s officials said they believe a deputy and custody assistant--a civilian employee in Twin Towers--were involved in selling heroin to inmates. Those allegations surfaced in the course of an undercover credit card sting operation the department’s Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau conducted over the past seven months.

Sheriff’s officials said they will continue to pursue the drug-selling allegations as part of their ongoing investigation.

“We want to get everybody, believe me,” said Assistant Sheriff Dennis Dahlman, who oversees the custody division. “If there’s a hint, we’ll pursue it.”

At Twin Towers, where all of the employees under suspicion except one worked, rumors concerning a corruption probe circulated for weeks before Wednesday’s searches. To divert attention from their actual undercover investigation, department officials floated a rumor that they were seeking information on a sex and drugs scheme involving inmates and employees. Briefings were held Thursday so employees could receive accurate information on the credit card sting, officials said.

All of the department employees caught up in the credit card scam allegations were relieved of duty Wednesday. Baca said he will move to fire them.

“This is a message to every employee in the organization that if you think you can get away with something, you’re not going to. . . . We’re going to find a place for you and it’s called jail,” Baca told a packed news conference Thursday morning. “If this had not been intercepted by our department, I have no doubt that these people, in their brazen disregard for the law, would be continuing.”

The department’s internal criminal investigation began after officials received a tip regarding the credit card ring’s operation. Investigators simultaneously discovered that one of the deputies, David Osorio, was allegedly involved in a much bigger credit card fraud scheme operating outside the department. It is that “elaborate network”--which officials believe does not include department employees--that has become a major focus of the investigation.

“We are in no way done with Deputy Osorio,” Pippin said. “After yesterday’s operation, we’ve received information we’re actively pursuing.”

Investigators believe Osorio was the ringleader in the internal credit card scam and a partner in the wider network, which is thought to have netted its participants millions of dollars from hundreds of stolen credit cards. They believe that Osorio personally amassed $500,000 to $1 million, and that he was probably engaged in that fraud ring before joining the department four years ago.

In the wider ring, authorities said, Osorio and his partner received credit cards stolen by Postal Service employees with access to security bags. A postal inspector said Thursday that the department is conducting its own internal investigation into those allegations.

The case against the employees will be turned over to the district attorney’s office, which is likely to convene a grand jury to seek indictments.

Sheriff’s officials said they believe the four deputies and all but one custody assistant are likely to face felony charges. Aside from Osorio, the other deputies allegedly involved are Richard English, Monica Planty and Jessie Zuniga.

Sheriff’s investigators, who interviewed all the employees involved Wednesday, said some are cooperating with them and others are denying any involvement in the scam despite department videotapes showing them receiving and using credit cards they allegedly believed were stolen.

It remains unclear whether the deputies and civilians would be represented by their unions, since investigators believe most of the criminal activity occurred when the employees were off duty.

To conduct the sting, the department set up dummy bank accounts, mostly through Bank of America, using $35,000 authorized by Baca. The employees received what they allegedly thought were stolen credit cards.

The investigation comes against the backdrop of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart corruption scandal, in which more than 30 LAPD officers have either been relieved of duty, suspended, fired or have quit. More than 70 are under investigation for a variety of offenses, including covering up unjustified shootings, intimidating witnesses, planting evidence and perjury. In addition, prosecutors have successfully overturned more than 75 felony convictions because of the involvement of allegedly corrupt officers.