http://articles.philly.com/1991-08-19/news/25806856_1_drug-dealers-dea-s-office-agentsNEW YORK — A crack team of federal drug agents is being investigated for allegedly beating up suspects, snorting cocaine, gambling, having sex with an informant, and lying in court, the New York Daily News reported yesterday.
It was this unit, called Group 33, that arrested Daniele Giovannucci, 32, former part owner of Fante's, a popular South Philadelphia cookware store, and three other men last December in a Bucks County marijuana sting.
Agents seized $176,000 and a loaded gun, and had tape-recorded and videotaped evidence against the four, but the case was quietly dropped in April amid hints of government misconduct.
The now-disbanded drug team, a unit of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was one of the DEA's most productive buy-and-bust teams. Without regard for their own safety, the group's members routinely broke down doors, often running into heavily armed drug dealers.
Probers are investigating whether eight to 10 members of the team, which operated out of a Manhattan office, improperly passed out drugs as samples to prospective buyers in undercover probes, sources in the Justice Department told the Daily News.
Because of the alleged activities of the rogue team, the government has dismissed at least two major drug cases, including the Philadelphia case, and dropped some charges.
After a pre-trial hearing in a Manhattan cocaine conspiracy case - involving three arrests and three kilograms of drugs - an angry federal judge said sworn statements by three of the agents were "riddled with falsehoods."
Last year, the government paid $125,000 to settle a suit in which several Group 33 agents, including James Hunt, a central figure in the probe, severely beat construction worker Steven Higgins of Staten Island outside a Manhattan bar. "It was a hell of a beating," said Higgins' attorney, Anthony Crecca.
Higgins, who suffered a fractured jaw, was also charged with assaulting federal agents.
The wide-ranging investigation is being conducted by assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Peter Vigiland and the DEA's Office of Professional Responsibility squad. It was triggered by a Brazilian woman, a DEA informant for 10 years, who has earned about $500,000 in federal reward money, the sources said.
She told investigators that she had sex with one of the agents and that the team provided her with drugs and gambled with her in Atlantic City.
On one gambling junket, she said, she lost $2,500, and Hunt and another agent arranged to get her an additional $2,500 by submitting phony vouchers.
Group 33 was broken up and Hunt placed in a headquarters unit early this year. Hunt did not respond to a request for comment. Another team member is under investigation for using cocaine, sources said.
For years, defense lawyers have argued that Group 33 agents used the ''anything goes" theory of law enforcement and routinely beat up unarmed suspects, an assertion that some prosecutors privately concede.
"Whenever I see defendants wearing bruises and bandages," said one federal drug prosecutor, "I always assume it's a Group 33 arrest."
However, no one denies the team has made hundreds of arrests and seized thousands of pounds of drugs while risking their lives.
In the Philadelphia case, charges against Giovannucci, who frequently appeared on the TV show, "The Frugal Gourmet," which Fante's sponsored, were dropped "in the interest of justice," according to the Philadelphia U.S. attorney's office.
Authorities declined to comment at the time when asked if there was any allegation of government misconduct in the investigation.
Giovannucci and three associates were arrested Dec. 7, after Giovannucci allegedly delivered a $176,000 deposit to a government informant at the Days Inn in Bensalem, Bucks County, unaware the meeting was being videotaped by authorities.
His attorney, Thomas C. Carroll, said at the time that "our position . . . was that the government had entered into an improper financial arrangement with its informant to entrap my client."
In a pretrial motion, Carroll noted that the government's informant, a woman who was not identified, in the last few years had earned close to $550,000 in commissions in "forfeiture cases" where the government confiscates all goods believed to be derived from the sale of illegal drugs.
In such cases, informants usually get 25 percent of whatever is confiscated, he said.
"Our point was with massive financial inducements like that, it gave her a reason to set the sting up in a way to further her own financial gain rather than to detect and prosecute drug dealers," Carroll said.
When his case was dismissed, Giovannucci said he was "pleased, frankly, that they've finally seen the light on this topic. I'm still disappointed, hurt and sad that it has taken them quite so long and effectively caused great damage to me."
Charges also were dismissed against the other defendants, Aca Blake, 31, of Callowhill Street near 17th, a male model, and Leonard Mills, 33, and Calvin Belin, 36, both of the Bronx, N.Y.
