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FEDS' SHAM DRUG 'STING'

Tulia Case An Offense To Even Most Diehard Antidrug Advocate

Tulia, Texas, population 4,699, has been making a name for itself with an assist from the Department of Justice. 

A July, 1999, drug sweep netted over 10 percent of Tulia's tiny African-American population after a purported cocaine-bust sting.  Pushed by suits from the American Civil Liberties Union and NAACP, the Justice Department has been investigating this undercover operation by the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force. 

Cases against all 40-plus defendants came from a former sheriff's deputy from out of town named Tom Coleman, with no previous experience investigating narcotics.  The drug arrests involved no surveillance by partner detectives; no video-tapes; no audiotapes; and no asset forfeiture. 

From Coleman's testimony, undercover work sounds awfully unvarying.  Almost uniformly, Coleman's 100-plus alleged drug buys during 18 months in Tulia were powder cocaine, the most expensive form; little crack or marijuana.  Ninety-nine of the hundred were a uniform few grams each.  Every sale was to Coleman directly, none to other parties witnessed by him.  Even though many defendants lived in trailer homes or in public housing, almost all the alleged drug sales occurred within 1,000 feet of a school or park harvesting long jail-sentence convictions for several defendants and horrible plea bargains for others. 

All occurred in the throbbing burg of Tulia itself; not on the outskirts, not in fields, not on the highway.  Defense attorneys have filed to get all the evidentiary cocaine tested.  Falling under the beyond-the-bizarre column is the result that much of the "cocaine" has turned out to be powdered drywall. 

If the Department of Justice deserves its name, it will investigate this "sting" thoroughly before winding down, and will dismiss charges against those punished heretofore.  With any luck, the investigation will also discover that the Justice Department funded the sting. 

Under the Edward Byrne Memorial Formula Grants program and a related discretionary program, millions of dollars annually go to local anti-crime task forces.  The Amarillo Globe-News has reported Sen.  Phil Gramm's press releases that the Panhandle task force received $478,670 in 1996, $685,670 in 1998, $760,115 in 1999 and $832,297 in 2000 ( before the DOJ investigation ). 

Yes, National Endowment for the Humanities, eat your heart out.  Funding from these grants increases yearly.  Texas alone received over $81 million in Byrne funds last year and is slated to receive over $34 million this year.  Funds go through the Bureau of Justice Assistance to the Texas Narcotics Control Program.  From there the funds mostly go to "multi-jurisdictional" task forces like the one in the Panhandle or the Southeast Texas Narcotics and Intelligence Task Force ( defunct as of this year ), reportedly where Coleman went after leaving the Panhandle. 

Where a real cocaine epidemic rages, the medico-academic establishment follows; drugs pull a well-funded kite tail of medical researchers, conferences, publications.  Real drugs also leave a trail in local hospitals and morgues.  No word, from either, pertaining to powdered cocaine in Tulia. 

What's weird here, aside from everything else, is that government grants are supposed to come with "compliance issues," guidelines and application rules.  A formula grant theoretically is allocated by formula.  Funds for crime-fighting are supposed to be determined by the amount of crime in the jurisdiction.  Byrne grantees are supposed to file quarterly financial reports, an annual performance report, and audits. 

In this particular case, these poor people jailed by a boondoggle should be out of jail.  Any American president with room for empathy on minor-drug-bust charges could see to it, and new Democratic Party gubernatorial and Senate nominees Tony Sanchez and Ron Kirk should insist on it, and without further delay. 

Texas native Margie Burns is a Washington, D.C.-based free-lance journalist.