Posted on 01/26/2004 2:46:53 PM PST by Stew Padasso
$500,000 Worth Of Drugs Missing From Evidence Room
Official: Arrest In Case Is Imminent
POSTED: 3:21 PM EST January 26, 2004 UPDATED: 5:10 PM EST January 26, 2004
The Volusia County Sheriff's Office has launched an investigation after discovering about $500,000 worth of cocaine and marijuana missing from the agency's evidence compound, according to Local 6 News.
Officials said Monday that the investigation into the missing drugs began two weeks ago and has now expanded into a federal criminal probe conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Volusia Sheriff Ben Johnson has ordered a complete audit of every piece of evidence in the department's inventory, according to a release.
"I'm deeply troubled to think that one of our employees may have abused his position by lying and stealing and jeopardizing other criminal prosecutions in the process," said Sheriff Johnson. "This is an extremely serious matter, and we will leave no stone unturned in this investigation."
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state Attorney's Office also are investigating, and officials say an arrest in the case is imminent.
The Sheriff's Office's evidence section is operated in accordance with national performance standards established by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, according to the report.
The department has been nationally accredited since 1991.
Last year, Johnson ordered a review of the evidence section because of some lapses that had been identified internally regarding the way departmental polices were being carried out by the department's evidence section.
In October, the Sheriff's Office's head of Professional Standards was temporarily transferred to the evidence section to correct any problems in the way the section was being run. That internal review hadn't uncovered any criminal activity, but had yielded some recommendations for tightening policies and procedures.
However, a separate probe turned criminal after nearly 600 grams of cocaine turned up missing from the evidence compound in DeLand. The discovery was made on Jan. 12.
The next day, the Sheriff's Office put six evidence workers on notice that an internal investigation was under way. FDLE was brought into the investigation on Jan. 15, and federal investigators joined the probe last week.
While the audit is not complete, approximately 300 more grams of cocaine and several hundred pounds of marijuana have also turned up missing, police said.
"I'm extremely angry and personally distressed about these events," said Johnson. "The person or persons responsible for these actions has violated the community’s trust, and that is not something I take lightly."
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
I would classify that as an extremely unfortunate turn of phrase...
I'll bet it's way more than just one employee, and that they've been doing it for quite some time.
The way most cop depts are, $500,000 could be a few handfulls of plants, with several pounds of dirt on the roots.
And so is Tommie Daschle....
Sheriff Ben Johnson will get to the bottom of this unless he's a bad guy in this one.
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