Tampa officer arrested on drug charges

Authorities say he fetched an ecstasy stash from an impounded car and traded it for steroids.

By GRAHAM BRINK and AMY HERDY
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 15, 2001

TAMPA -- A Tampa police officer was accused in court Friday of retrieving 1,000 tablets of ecstasy from a car in the police impound lot, then returning the pills to a person arrested when the car was impounded.

Officer Matthew R. Campbell was arrested near his Seminole Heights home Thursday night and charged with conspiracy and possession of ecstasy with intent to distribute.

Court records indicate another officer may also have been involved.

"It's an ongoing investigation," federal prosecutor Jeffrey Del Fuoco said after Friday's hearing. "We are working all the leads."

According to a criminal complaint, a confidential source told U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Adrian Chindgren and Tampa Detective Rick Swearingen that he knew of a man who stashed 1,000 tablets of ecstasy in the console of a 1995 Ford Mustang before it was impounded during an arrest.

A man who had been arrested had called Campbell, who he knew from working security in Ybor City, and asked if he could get into the impound lot and retrieve the ecstasy, according to court records. Campbell said he would in exchange for 10 bottles of the anabolic steroid "Deca," the records said.

On Dec. 18 last year, Campbell met with the man and exchanged the ecstasy for the steroids, according to court records. Another police officer was with Campbell, the records said.

On May 25, an undercover federal agent met with Campbell, 26, at the Groovy Mule Bottle Club in Tampa and said she was interested in buying an ecstasy tablet, according to court records. Campbell talked with several men at the club, the records said, and introduced the undercover agent to a man named Josh and told her Josh would sell her ecstasy.

Campbell gave the agent $20 to make the purchase, the records said.

Campbell, whose salary is about $38,000, was suspended with pay May 25, then suspended without pay June 27.

At the court hearing Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas McCoun set bail at $50,000. Campbell's wife, mother and stepfather told the judge they could put up the bail. They declined to comment afterward.

If convicted of the conspiracy and possession charges, he faces up to six years in prison.

Del Fuoco, the prosecutor, said Campbell might be charged additionally because he was in uniform with his gun. It's a mandatory five-year prison sentence for anyone to possess a gun during the commission of a violent crime or while trafficking in drugs.

Campbell, 26, joined the department in August 1998 and his evaluations were satisfactory. He is married and has two young children.

Police Chief Bennie Holder expressed little sympathy. He said the department would do all it could to identify anyone else involved.

"There's nothing worse to me than a dirty cop," Holder said. "They're no better than a thug."

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