A part-time Clarkston police officer who is also a former DeKalb County officer pleaded not guilty Thursday to warning drug dealers of an impending FBI raid, federal court authorities said.
Gabriel Hoskins III was placed on supervised release with a $10,000 unsecured bond. He is accused of looking up the names and drivers license tag numbers of suspected drug dealers in the FBI’s criminal database, then tipping them off.
“It’s very disturbing when law enforcement reveals to criminals that other law enforcement will be conducting a search warrant,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It endangers the officers doing the search warrant, and it makes it very likely that whatever evidence might have been in that apartment … like drugs, guns, ledgers … might be destroyed.”
Hoskins, 39, was a volunteer officer with Clarkston for just over a year, working 16 hours a week, and a courtesy officer at a Decatur apartment complex.
According to court officials, Hoskins, who was indicted earlier this month by a federal grand jury, befriended a pair of drug dealers living in the apartment complex, where Hoskins also lived.
The dealers, who are twins, were part of a large-scale marijuana distribution ring based out of Virginia. McBurney said those individuals have been prosecuted for their part in the drug ring.
On April 20 last year, Hoskins allegedly used his access to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database to make an unauthorized search for police information gathered on the drug dealers.
In June, he informed the dealers a search warrant had been issued for their apartment, allowing them to remove any incriminating evidence, authorities said.
In October, court authorities said Hoskins searched through the NCIC without authorization.
By December, Clarkston police were aware that he was being investigated.
“I was informed that there was an investigation that may lead to a pending indictment the week of Dec.12,” City Manager Keith Barker told the AJC.
“My direction to the former chief at the time was that we needed to end our relationship with that gentleman immediately,” Barker said.
Hoskins was subsequently released from his volunteer duties with the department.
While he potentially faces five years per offense for two counts of unlawful access of a federal database and one count of tipping off drug dealers, prosecutors told a federal district judge that Hoskins didn’t need to go to prison.
“The government is not seeking detention,” McBurney said in court. “The defendant is cooperating with the FBI. We think his risk of flight is low.”
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