Dallas — Hispanics may have been targeted by police in narcotics cases based on fake drugs, their attorneys allege. Some of the defendants were deported because of the drug charges.
Dist. Atty. Bill Hill has announced that his office is working to dismiss 59 cases, some involving two undercover police narcotics officers who have been placed on administrative leave, and at least one paid confidential informant who no longer works for the department.
Attorney Cynthia Barbare looks over documents with client Jose Luis Vega at her office in Dallas. Vega was arrested for drug charges and jailed on a charge of possession with intent to deliver cocaine. A lab test showed the substance to be gypsum, and Vega was released in November after spending three months in jail.
The FBI has been asked to investigate, Hill said Friday.
Thirty-nine people had been arrested as a result of the 59 cases.
"The majority of defendants involved are Mexican nationals, which to me looks like they were targets," attorney Cynthia Barbare said.
Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton has said the department is reviewing 70 narcotics buys initiated by the paid confidential informant since 1999. Tests on seized evidence in some of those case found no drugs or only minute amounts of illegal material mixed with powdered gypsum, the chalky material used in Sheetrock.
"We're watching to see how this unfolds," said Will Harrell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. "If all these cases are dismissed and these people are released, litigation may not be necessary."
However, Barbare said she's filing civil rights lawsuits on behalf of her two clients involved in fake drug cases. In both cases, lab tests revealed the alleged drugs were gypsum.
One of her clients, Abel Santos, 26, was deported even though charges were dismissed.
"At first, I thought it was a mistake," Santos said in a telephone interview from Monterrey, Mexico. "This is the kind of thing that happens somewhere else, like in Mexico, but not in the United States."
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