INFORMANT BLAMED IN ADDICTION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 13, 1992                   TAG: 9202130324
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Short
INFORMANT BLAMED IN ADDICTION
An attorney for the last of 11 University of Virginia students to be tried as a result of the fraternity row drug raids said Wednesday a police informant got his client addicted to cocaine.
James Andrew Carter, 20, of Newport News first used cocaine on Dec. 8, 1990, when Tamir Noufi gave him the drug, attorney William Fears said Wednesday in Charlottesville Circuit Court.
Noufi told Carter, who is charged with two counts of cocaine distribution, that the drug would help him stay awake so he could write a term paper, Fears told jurors.
"He liked it," Fears said in describing Carter's reaction to the drug. Carter later received treatment for addiction to the drug at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
Noufi called Carter several times during the next two months in search of a cocaine supplier, Fears told jurors.
Carter rejected Noufi's requests several times before connecting him with a friend in Northern Virginia, Fears said.
Noufi and undercover Officer Mike Deeds visited Carter two times within 30 minutes on Feb. 19 with the intent to buy cocaine, Deeds testified.
Carter "didn't make a cent off of this," Fears said.
Noufi's role as an informant played a significant role in the Operation Equinox investigation that led to the March 21 seizure of three UVa fraternities and indictments against 11 students and one non-student on drug distribution charges.
A U.S. District Court jury convicted Noufi in September on charges of possession of less than 50 kilograms of marijuana and possession with intent to distribute six ounces of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB