By O’RYAN JOHNSON
The Boston Herald
Copyright 2006 Boston Herald Inc.
Boston police are in the midst of an exhaustive audit to determine whether drugs went missing or were stolen when mountains of cocaine, heroin and marijuana were relocated to a new holding area inside a Hyde Park evidence warehouse.
“I have not had anybody tell me there’s theft involved, but they don’t want to say that until they’ve done a job,” Acting Police Commissioner Albert Goslin told the Herald yesterday afternoon. “They’ve had to say they can’t find it today. They could very well find it tomorrow. I’m not aware of any particular cases missing right now.”
The warehouse where the drugs went missing holds evidence from cases that date back as far as 20 years, Goslin said. The department is forced to keep evidence in open cases until a court order is given to destroy the drugs.
“It’s a massive, huge walk-in facility with drugs lined up on both sides, and drugs go from floor to ceiling, literally. It’s 6 or 7 feet high,” Goslin said. “They were looking for cases that weren’t where they were supposed to be.”
Goslin said six to eight weeks ago, officers began moving the drugs from an old storage room to a newer, recently constructed space inside the same building. He ordered an audit at that time.
During that audit, police discovered bags of drugs missing, he said. Goslin said officers later found those bags had been misplaced inside the warehuose. But police are now unable to say whether all of the drug evidence is accounted for.
“Everything could very well be accounted for,” he said. “That’s why you do an audit. This audit is far from over.”