FBI Arrests Patrol Group Accountant

A Tacoma accountant whose bookkeeping clients include police officers, ministers and even the Washington State Patrol Troopers Association was arrested Friday in Phoenix on money-laundering charges.

Darrell Harber, 61, who lives in Graham, said he was "in the wrong place at the wrong time" when he was arrested in an FBI sting operation called "Steep Chase." Twelve men, including Harber, were accused by the Justice Department of laundering drug profits. Another man was arrested on charges of distributing cocaine.

Harber says he has a clean record and that he was a police officer in Missouri for 20 years.

"Boy, that is a real jolt. That's a big surprise. I guess I'll have to find a new accountant," said state trooper Owen Wilson, who is secretary-treasurer of the troopers association.

Wilson and trooper association president Dan Davis said the only dealings they had ever had with Harber were over the phone.

The FBI said under the 19-month-long undercover operation, agents posing as drug dealers tried to launder $750 million in supposed drug profits.

According to the Justice Department, the men who were arrested were lured to Phoenix under the guise of restructuring their own money-laundering networks.

"These individuals were chauffeured in limousines by undercover FBI agents to the vicinity of the Phoenix FBI office and subsequently placed under arrest," the FBI said in a statement.

Harber said he didn't know he was being investigated until about a dozen agents surrounded a car he was riding in after breakfast. He said he had flown to Phoenix on Wednesday to assist a man with his taxes.

"This guy wanted me to watch over everything and make sure the taxes were all right," Harber said.

The client was not among those arrested, although Harber now thinks he may have been an undercover FBI agent.

Harber said that for about two years he did accounting for one of the men arrested with him, but if he knew of criminal activity or cocaine dealing, "I wouldn't have stayed around at all."

Harber said he served as a police officer in Bellefontaine Neighbors, a St. Louis suburb, from 1951 until 1971. After retiring, he moved to Tacoma where his accounting clients include a prominent doctor, businessmen, police officers, ministers, a church and the patrol association.

Harber and 10 other men were arrested in Phoenix, while a man from the nation of Belize was arrested in Houston and a Florida man was arrested in Tampa, FBI officials said.

Two of the men were charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and aiding and abetting in the distribution of the drug. One of the two men, Angelo Ernesto Sbrocca, 27, was also charged with conspiracy to launder money. The other drug arrest was Gaber Hemmo, 45.

Those arrested solely on conspiracy to launder money were James Edward Carlton, 57, of Mesa; Omar Prather, 67, of Scottsdale; Herb Collins, 61, of Mesa; Harber; Romano Sbrocca, 51, of Phoenix; Robert Charles Luse, 61, of Farmingdale, N.Y.; Donald Hoffman, hometown unknown; Eben Wilton Carpenter, 50, of Topeka, Kan.; Findley Maxmillion Monsanto, 52, of Belmapan, Belize, a small Central American country next to Mexico; Joseph W. Simpson, 41, who was taken into custody earlier Friday in Orlando, Fla.; and John E. Filson, 57, of Tampa, Fla.

Also, William Sanford Hults, age unknown, of Vero Beach, Fla., was arrested on a probation violation related to the case.

The two Phoenix men could face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

The others, including Harber, could face up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.

"I've made arrests before," said Harber. "Quite a few of them. I never knew what it felt like to be on the other end. It's devastating, I'll tell you."