Mr. EVANS. The point with marihuana, though, is that if you state the amount high enough, there is no question that the guy is in the business of smuggling and selling. Judge PHILLIPS. Absolutely. I don't quarrel with that at all. Mr. EVANS. Then you get a certain class of people that expect to make a tremendous amount of profit out of what they are doing. And if they are convicted for it, I don't think there is any excuse for them. How are we doing? Do we have other questions? Anything else? Judge, we appreciate it. Judge PHILLIPS. You are not going to ask anything? Just making statements? Mr. EVANS. I have asked several questions. I want to know if you feel like we are getting an increased traffic, for instance? Judge PHILLIPS. Yes, I do. Mr. EVANS. And you have already told us that you find it in any school. Judge PHILLIPS. You know that, don't you? Isn't that generally what you all have found? Mr. EVANS. That's what we are finding everywhere else. Judge PHILLIPS. I think the public schools are a little bit more inclined to it than the private schools, because they have better control in the private schools. Mr. CARPENTIER. That was true in Memphis. Judge PHILLIPS. I think you will find that is going to be true generally, although our Catholic school here, DeSales, has been there a long time. It has been there since 1900, and while it is a private school, while it is a religious school, it still has a mixture of people there. We have some Jewish people, Catholic people-in fact, there are more Protestants there than Catholics that go to school there. They have white, black, and some Mexicans, all kinds of folks that go there. It is not restricted to anybody, you see; it is just a high-level sort of place. The only reason my child went through the public school, through grade school, then when she got to junior high, it was a little dangerous in some of the public schools, and I got scared, and my wife was teaching in the public school, and all they do is babysit, and I just get tired of babysitting. I want somebody to teach them something about reading, writing, and arithmetic, and I want it to be a safe place to go. And that worries me about our public school system right now, and I don't know what you can do about that legislatively. Mr. EVANS. Thank you. Judge PHILLIPS. Thank you. I appreciate you all coming. I wish you well on your trip. Mr. EVANS. Thank you for your information. [Whereupon, at 4:50 p.m., the hearing was recessed to reconvene at 9 a.m. on Saturday, March 1, 1980.] PREPARED STATEMENT OF LEE RAMPEY, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Lee Rampey and I am United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. For the benefit of the participants in this hearing, I have attached to my statement a map of our District which consists of seventy counties touching three states that surround Georgia. I would also note that this is almost numerically one-half of Georgia's total of 159 counties. This District also overlaps twenty-one state judicial circuits consisting of from one to eight counties each where state felony prosecutions are brought by state District Attorneys. The Middle District of Georgia consists of major population centers of Athens, Macon, Americus, Columbus, Albany, Valdosta, and Thomasville. These cities coincide with our seven judicial divisions where court is held approximately twice a year. The District also includes major educational institutions such as The Univer sity of Georgia in Athens and at least eight other public and private colleges and universities. There are five major military installations within the confines of this District which include Fort Benning, Georgia, and Robins Air Force Base. Our federal investigative law enforcement presence in this District presently consists of fifteen FBI agents (Athens-one, Macon-seven, Albany-two, Thomasville-one, and Columbus-three), Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms fifteen (Macon-nine, Columbus-four, and Valdosta-two), Postal Inspectors two (Macon), Secret Service two (Albany) and no Drug Enforcement agents stationed within the District. The total law enforcement presence appears to have decreased manpower wise by approximately one-third over the past ten years and the trend among some agencies is to centralize their agents in major metropolitan areas, i.e., Atlanta, and allow them to work from there in Districts such as mine. The United States Attorney's Office, which is centralized in one office in Macon, Georgia, consists of myself, nine Assistant U.S. Attorneys, along with a support staff of ten and five part-time law clerks. Of the nine Assistant U.S. Attorneys allocated to my office, three devote their full time efforts to civil litigation of almost every type that touches the government and its agencies. Six Assistant U.S. Attorneys are assigned full time to the investigation, evaluation and prosecution of federal criminal violations. Two AUSA's are assigned to the Macon Division, two assigned to the Columbus Division, one to Albany and Athens Divisions, and one to Thomasville, Valdosta, and Americus Divisions. Their duties include receiving investigations presented by the various federal agencies, evaluating them, providing legal advice at the investigative stage, and assisting agents by the use of investigative grand juries. In that regard, we keep at least three grand juries in operation to assist us in the collection of evidence of federal criminal violations in this District. I have attached to my statement a list of the drug and narcotics prosecutions of our office in the past three years. As you can see from this list, we have endeavored to work with many federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in the prosecution of narcotics violations in this District. We have a tradition of working closely with the Macon-Bibb County Drug Squad, and there is presently a case pending for trial involving the alleged distribution of 30,000 Quaalude from Florida to Georgia. The drug squad was also instrumental in 1977 in the investigation of the Henry Scott heroin case. Scott was then a fugitive from two major drug indictments in the New Jersey-New York area and he was prosecuted in this District for the distribution of brown heroin. The case was investigated by the Macon-Bibb County Drug Squad in conjunction with the local Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the New Jersey state police. Although there was less than 1 oz. of heroin involved in the case, Scott received thirty years and his wife received fifteen years. They both later testified in the Southern District of New York in a major heroin conspiracy case where six defendants were convicted. We have endeavored in the past year to work more closely with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, whom I understand has changed some of their approaches to importation and smuggling investigations, and we look forward in the future to working with them. Also, last year was the beginning of the major cocaine prosecution that culminated in the sentencing of eight defendants last week in this District. We consider this case to be one of the largest drug smuggling operations ever prosecuted in this state. Curiously enough this case began with a firearms investigation by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Crisp County, or Cordele, Georgia, that related to some of the defendants and pilots in the cocaine case. The first break in the case came with the seizure of approximately $200,000,000 of cocaine in Panama and the arrest of some of the defendants by Panamanian authorities. When our office learned of this, we determined that venue was not only in the Middle District of Georgia, but also in St. Louis, Missouri, and Miami, Florida. I, along with one of my Assistants, went to the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Section of the Department of Justice and we were able to persuade them that the logical place for this prosecution was in this District. The Drug Enforcement Administration formed their mobile task force 331, "Operation Holy Cross," consisting of agents from St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami, Panama, Bolivia and Brazil. They were also assisted by the Panamanian G-2, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Alabama Bureau of Investigation, Orlando DEA, and ATF. The task force marshalled the evidence and the case was prosecuted in January of this year in Macon. After a four-week trial prosecuted by two of my Assistants, seven defendants were convicted of conspiracy to import 200 pounds of cocaine, marihuana, and other illicit drugs, and they, along with those who had previously pled guilty, were sentenced to terms of from five to twenty years imprisonment with special parole terms to follow of five to fifteen years as well as substantial fines. I believe that the successful prosecution and substantial fines and sentences imposed in this case will be a substantial deterrent and serve as notice to major drug traffickers that they will be vigorously prosecuted if they violate the federal drug laws in this District. For the future, my staff and I will continue to work toward a greater effort with the Drug Enforcement Administration whose office in Atlanta has investigative jurisdiction over our District. We now have one agent who is designated as our liaison with that office and who is supposed to coordinate their investigations with out office and local law enforcement agencies. We will continue to work with state and local law enforcement in the manner that we have in the past and hope that we can more effectively stem the tide of illicit drugs into our country. |