Drugs Are Always A Problem

The cities are crawling with drug dealers and buyers, but some of the buyers are really cops. There is lots of money in drugs and also in drug enforcement and when that much in millions is available to the access of some, there will always be problems. As it has been in the Mississippi Delta region of the state.

Law enforcement officials met with auditors from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety in January asked the federal government to investigate possible misuse of federal grant money by North Central and Tri-County Narcotics Task Force, which operated in Oktibbeha, Clay and Lowndes counties until the state defunded them last year.

While March said the investigation cleared the North Central Task Force, Sam Albritton, executive director of the Division of Public Safety Planning, said the auditors found "deficiencies with the program."

"Poor documentation is leaving an appearance of impropriety," he said.

Albritton said auditors found weak accounting procedures and problems in reconciling the cash vouchers for undercover drug purchases with the daily activity reports filed by agents.

"The whole thing boils down to bookkeeping issues," he said.

Albritton said auditors reviewed 75 sample documents and found problems tracking federal money, including money used to purchase drugs. A written report from the inspector general's office is due next week, he said.

Albritton said the federal probe is continuing and may expand to other task forces. He said auditors next will turn their attention to the Tri-County Task Force, which DPS inspectors recommended not be funded after the unit overbilled for crime lab fees and went over budget for undercover drug buys despite having purchased a relatively small amount of drugs.

DPS officials requested the federal investigation following a dispute with task force members over funding for the 2008 fiscal year. A panel made up of local law enforcement from around the state concurred with the DPS recommendation that North Central be denied funding. The task force had asked for $301,550 in federal money.