Drug money taken from the home of a former Memphis Police property room manager.
Posted on 01/22/2006 6:26:31 AM PST by Sybeck1
For three years, Memphis police made drug arrests, dutifully gave the drugs to property room workers and waited to make their cases in court.
They had no idea those workers were wheeling those same drugs right back out the door -- right back onto the street.
Now, almost three months after a drug lord who sold more than a half-ton of that cocaine earned a 24-year prison term, the scope of the property room case is clearer.
It netted more than 100 people, including one part-time judge and two workers who took more than $100,000 to look the other way. More than 1,300 pounds of cocaine was sold on the street as crack at rock-bottom prices -- enough to fuel thousands of users for months. And untold millions in profits spread the bling from Texas to Atlanta.
And all of it was being stolen right out from under the Memphis Police Department's nose.
As brazen as the thefts were, it wasn't the first time the police property room -- the place where evidence is stored until it can be used in criminal trials -- had seen its security compromised.
In 1999, an audit told police officials that the property room's security practices were suspect, at best.
Ultimately, the case left an astounding amount of money in criminal hands.
Willie Woods, a West Tennessee drug dealer who recently pleaded guilty in federal court, turned over: $2 million in cash, $334,786 from a bank account, luxury properties in Bolivar and Oakland, a dozen vehicles -- mostly expensive SUVs -- and several motorcycles, diamond-embedded white gold bracelets and necklaces, including one with "NUCK" spelled out in diamonds.
When a team of Memphis police and federal agents raided former property room supervisor Kenneth Dansberry's Cordova home, they found more than $1 million -- cash stuffed in everything from coolers to cardboard boxes in the attic.
He was earning so much more than his $33,000 civilian salary, he couldn't spend it fast enough.
In August 2002, an informant told a Memphis detective that things were being stolen from the department's evidence room.
"At first we thought it was theft of property," said Memphis Police Deputy Chief Dewey Betts, who supervised the Organized Crime Unit. "We didn't know drugs were involved."
Then, in October 2002, OCU detective Dion Cicinelli went to the property room to inspect 1,500 pounds of marijuana seized in a raid.
The clerk, Dansberry, fumbled around at first and produced 1,500 grams of pot -- not even close to 1,500 pounds.
Finally, he scrambled and scraped together 1,500 pounds of pot that Cicinelli knew didn't come from his case.
Now OCU knew the property room thefts involved drugs, too.
Police officials called in the FBI because it involved thefts by city employees. They called in the Drug Enforcement Administration, too.
And because the circumstances were so unusual, a new investigative template was created.
Agents from the Memphis Police Department, DEA, FBI and IRS were used -- but because even the tiniest leak would've killed the case, only the most trusted agents were clued in -- a core of about 15 people.
It worked: Word of the investigation never got out until Sept. 30, 2003, when Dansberry and the other property room principals were arrested.
As they investigated, the agents learned that kilograms of cocaine swiped from the property room were being sold for $10,000 -- less than half the going rate.
Much of it was converted to crack, which can contain less than 20 percent actual cocaine.
"It was pure profit," said DEA agent-in-charge Andy Dimond. "They were blowing the competition away, undercutting so many people."
The job now was to find out who "they" were.
As it turned out, they were all over the place, in property room jobs, lawyers' offices, in Texas, in Atlanta, in small towns in West Tennessee.
"The scope was so large," said FBI special agent Brian Burns. "It was important to bring it to as quick a conclusion as possible, and at the same time to thoroughly investigate."
Time was of the essence.
"You only have the element of surprise for so long," said Howard Marshall, who heads the FBI white collar unit here.
And keeping quiet was key.
"We knew if we moved hard, and kept it quiet, we would get results," said Asst. U.S. Atty. Tom Colthurst.
Agents quickly sneaked into the old International Harvester plant -- used to store the bulkiest drug seizures -- and found evidence that confirmed the suspected thefts.
That gave them knowledge to work with when two dealers picked up in 2003 said they'd bought drugs stolen from the property room. That led to indictments of 17 people, including Dansberry, other property room workers, and a big-time Atlanta-based dealer, Patrick Maxwell.
In Dansberry's Cordova home, agents found a garbage bag full of cash, molded over so badly they couldn't count it.
Dansberry and his cohorts spilled their guts, some of them saying they'd stolen so much, they had no idea how much they'd taken.
The investigation led to one prominent Memphis lawyer. Part-time judge Scott Crawford was convicted of laundering profits from property room cocaine through his firm.
All those charged locally have pleaded guilty: No one has gone to trial.
To try to ensure such thievery never happens again, police are building a new property and evidence room.
All evidence will be bar-coded and tracked by computer.
Drug-destruction teams of police officers and city auditors will destroy drugs no longer needed as evidence.
-- Chris Conley: 529-2595
Copyright 2006, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved.
Drug money taken from the home of a former Memphis Police property room manager.
The case unfolds: A timeline
In October, an OCU detective asks to see 1,500 pounds of marijuana from one of his cases. The dope he's shown isn't his.
In March 2003, agents sneak into the old International Harvester plant, which was used for storage, and find narcotics wrappers on the floor. If the narcotics had been burned, as they should've been, the wrappings should have been burned, too.
In April 2003, the agents find a cocaine brick in the International Harvester plant with a number that doesn't exist in property room computers. Someone is erasing entries.
That same month, drug dealers tell DEA agents about buying drugs stolen from the property room. They lead investigators to dealers Eric Brown and Atlanta resident Patrick Maxwell. Their info leads to indictments against 17 people in September, including property room employees.
In summer 2003, the FBI gets Department of Justice clearance for wire taps, and starts listening.
In late September 2003, the first big take-down comes.
In the following months, drug dealers caught up in the property room case name other drug sources, people not directly connected to the property room.
In September 2005, prosecutors unseal indictments against those drug rings. One in Texas involves 55 people.
Copyright 2006, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved.
Lon? McQ? You there?
"They had no idea those workers were wheeling those same drugs right back out the door..."
BS, I have been hearing about this for years in Memphis.
When are we going to learn that the only way to solve the drug problem is to remove the profit. There is only one way to remove the profit.
There was a similar story a few weeks ago, but I can't find it right now, about rats being blamed for eating the evidence.
Will some politically motivated judge interfere in this, as in the case of dead voters?
Not to worry, let's simply allow more and more erosions of the BOR, allocate untold millions more dollars, and lock up countless more of our non-violent fellow citizens to solve this problem.
Never forget the official motto:
"Absolute power corrupts everyone but us".
Ethnicity is irrelevant. This kind of stuff happens in big cities all the time. So what if they were Black, they were wrong and criminal, and should be punished accordingly.
Me, too!
It happens in smaller cities as well. Back in 93 or 94 it happened in a small East Texas city.
I wonder if the rules of evidence and the law could be adjusted to allow the destruction of all or most of this poison as soon as it is verified as contraband.
The temptation poised by so much salable contraband must be too much for some people.
Your're right. The profit motive is too tempting. Like in the movies, Training Day, and the TV show, The Shield: there's a room full of cash in a dealer's den, millions in cash, in $100K bundles, who's gonna miss 2 or 3 out of hundreds? And for LEO who make a measly $35K, it has to be really tempting to see this month after month.
The reporter should be fired for that line.
They need to do like Reno 911 did in one episode.Take the drugs out to the desert,build a big bonfire,bring some beer,sit around the fire and make a party out of it.
Isn't this guy considered a LEO?
And you didn't report it? That's probably a worth felony charge or three. Ah, the wonders of drug prohibition.
Uh, fight the drug war even harder and increase spending for interdiction and eradication efforts? You know, (finally) get tough on drugs?
No?
The teachers unions and drug dealers are much the same, all they both see is dollar signs.
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