Pubdate: Thu, 23 Dec 2004
Source: Advocate, The (LA)
Copyright: 2004 The Advocate, Capital City Press
Contact:  http://www.theadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2
Author: Penny Brown Roberts, Advocate staff writer

2 TOP OFFICIALS LEAVING JOBS FIGHTING CRIME

Baton Rouge is losing chiefs at two of its top federal crime-fighting
agencies.

Jerry Dennis, who heads the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives' Baton Rouge field office, is retiring Jan. 3.

Warren Rivera, the agent in charge of the local field office for the
Drug Enforcement Administration, leaves in February for reassignment
in Bolivia.

Both are leaving their posts as the number of cases those agencies
have investigated are at record numbers.

Department of Justice statistics show there were 60 drug prosecutions
in Baton Rouge federal court this year in the nine-parish area --
nearly three times greater than 2001. There were 60 gun prosecutions
this year, a 30 percent increase during the same time period.

"I hate to see them go because we've had an excellent working
relationship, and both of them have helped us achieve significant
increases in prosecutions in their areas," U.S. Attorney David Dugas
said Wednesday. "They've been very effective in their positions."

Dennis, 56, is a Texas native who spent his entire ATF career in
Louisiana -- first as an agent in Shreveport for 14 years and then as
resident agent in charge in Baton Rouge for another 14 years.

His biggest case here was against Andre Ferguson, the former owner of
Andre's Arms. At least 125 of the guns Ferguson sold turned up at
crime scenes from 1999 to 2002 -- including six murders, 21 drug cases
and one kidnapping.

Ferguson pleaded guilty in 2002 to five counts of knowingly selling
firearms to prohibited persons and is serving a four-year sentence in
federal prison.

Said Dennis: "That was a very significant case just
because that was the source of so many illegal guns out there."

The ATF agent said he believes the agency's biggest impact during his
tenure has been Project Exile -- an illegal gun eradication program.

The program has been criticized by some who say its primary purpose is
to pump up federal prosecution statistics, but Dennis contends it has
"really made an impact on violent crime in Baton Rouge."

Dennis, who plans to remain in Baton Rouge, will be replaced by
veteran ATF Special Agent Milton Bonaventure.

Rivera, 43, is a Metairie native who's been with the DEA since 1986.
He served in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Denver and Washington, D.C.,
before taking the reins of the Baton Rouge office in June 2002.

He supervises some 45 agents, task force members and other employees
in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. In his new DEA post in Santa Cruz,
Bolivia, he'll be in charge of a group of DEA agents and foreign
national police.

During his tenure, the Baton Rouge DEA has investigated several
high-profile cases.

In July, a Baton Rouge grand jury indicted two Las Vegas men accused
of selling designer drugs under the guise of "research chemicals" that
might have led to the death of a St. Francisville man. Both of the
accused have pleaded innocent to the charges; their trial is pending.

And in April, agents arrested five Baton Rouge-area men accused of
being dealers in an international drug ring believed responsible for
15 percent of all Ecstasy smuggled into the country. It was part of a
two-year investigation that extended into Canada and the Netherlands
and brought about the arrests of 200 people nationwide.

Rivera also said DEA has stepped up the number of wiretaps involved in
its investigations. Before his arrival in 2002, he said, the last one
was in 1996. Exact statistics were not available Wednesday.

Said Rivera, whose replacement has not been named: "I think we've made
a significant dent in the drug trade in Baton Rouge."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Derek