Probe names drug officer

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A VICTORIAN policeman due to be presented with an international award for fighting the drug war has been accused of being involved in drug rip-offs.

 

The detective, formerly attached to the National Crime Authority and the elite Australian Crime Commission, was yesterday accused of stealing money and drugs from drug dealers with other corrupt police.

 

He was named during a hearing of the Police Integrity Commission in Sydney yesterday and was later suspended without pay by Victoria Police.

 

The Herald Sun believes the detective, whose name was suppressed by the commission, is overseas, where he was to be given a medal this week for services

 

to the community in relation to drug detection.

 

He was summonsed to the commission hearing when it opened on Thursday, but did not appear.

 

The officer has already been highly commended by Victoria Police for his criminal investigation skills, and has been described by the Deputy Commissioner as "a credit to the force".

 

Two of Victoria's most senior police corruption investigators, Commander Dannye Maloney and senior assistant ombudsman Brian Hardiman, went to Sydney to listen to the Police Integrity Commission proceedings.

 

The Victorian detective was implicated by a New South Wales detective-sergeant who admitted stealing ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis during phony arrests of drug dealers.

 

NCA and ACC cars were used in the rip-offs, and on one occasion an NCA firearm was used, Detective-Sergeant Samuel John Foster told the hearing.

 

The NCA was merged with other crime-fighting agencies to become the Australian Crime Commission on January 1 last year.

 

Det-Sgt Foster told the commission the Victorian policeman was part of a rip-off in North Sydney that yielded $36,000 cash in late 2002 or early 2003.

 

He said two registered NCA informants were also involved.

 

One of the informants provided counterfeit money to show the drug supplier, who dropped a bag of ecstasy and ran off when Det-Sgt Foster and the Victorian policeman produced their identification, he said.

 

The commission was told the Victorian policeman was the primary handler of the informants, who had earlier been charged with serious drug offences.

 

Det-Sgt Foster said the Victorian had prepared a "letter of assistance" for the informant to advise a sentencing judge how much help the man had provided authorities.

 

He gave details of only one rip-off involving the Victorian, but another corrupt NSW detective who is assisting the commission told the hearing he thought there had been others.

 

"At one point, he (Det-Sgt Foster) actually told me when we did a rip-off that he'd done some with (the Victorian) as well," the detective said.

 

The detective, whose name has been suppressed, admitted involvement in four drug rip-offs.

 

Det-Sgt Foster, who previously worked for the Independent Commission Against Corruption in NSW, admitted yesterday he had lied to the commission on Thursday.

 

He admitted that he received $10,000 and half the drugs taken during his last rip-off, only three weeks ago.

 

He said he spent the money playing the pokies, visiting brothels and buying drugs.

 

On Thursday, the commission's public hearing was shown dramatic surveillance videotapes of Det-Sgt Foster and another policeman involved in the drug sting on January 30 this year.

 

Det-Sgt Foster was driving an ACC car he had borrowed while on sick leave on the pretence of needing it to deliver subpoenas to witnesses in a trial.

 

He admitted the job was planned with another informant in a park across the road from the Police Integrity Commission offices in Elizabeth St, Sydney.

 

The hearing was adjourned to a date to be fixed.

 

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