| QUOTE |
| Former NFL star Smith arrested Officials say player in '88 Super Bowl sold coke to agents By Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News October 1, 2005 Former football star Timmy Smith, once the Super Bowl bane of the Denver Broncos and lately employed at a youth detention center, was arrested Friday on charges of dealing cocaine. Federal officials said Smith, 41, sold about 20 ounces of cocaine to an undercover agent Friday morning for $13,600 in a restaurant parking lot near the Denver Tech Center, then fled in his sport utility vehicle as officers closed in to arrest him. Denver police stopped Smith about 20 minutes later at East Arkansas Avenue and South Quebec Street,said Jeff Walsh, a supervisory special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Denver DEA Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Sweetin held up a football-sized pile of white powder cocaine in a zipped plastic bag at a news conference Friday afternoon after Smith's arrest. "We believe that Mr. Smith is and has been a cocaine dealer," Sweetin said. Smith's brother also was arrested Friday on drug charges. Sweetin said Smith sold a total of 1.3 kilograms of cocaine, worth about $37,000 on the street, to an undercover officer on seven occasions during the investigation, which began in April. DEA officials called Smith's position at Gilliam Youth Services in Denver "youth counselor," but Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Human Services that runs the center, said Smith is a "security officer" at the detention center. Walsh said Smith had told the undercover agent who bought cocaine from him that he was a youth counselor. Smith also has been an instructor for youth football camps in the Denver area. In August, he was lead instructor at a YMCA flag-football camp for boys and girls in grades 1 through 12. Friday's cocaine buy took place about 11 a.m. in a strip mall parking lot near the Cool River restaurant in the Denver Tech Center area, off Interstate 25 at East Belleview Avenue, Walsh said. He said the undercover officer was in the passenger seat of Smith's SUV when the cocaine and the money were exchanged. The undercover officer then signaled other officers, who appeared in DEA jackets, guns drawn, Walsh said. The undercover officer leaped out of the passenger seat. Smith drove over a concrete parking divider and vanished "at a high rate of speed," Sweetin said. Walsh said DEA agents aren't allowed to conduct high-speed chases, but they drove around systematically looking for Smith. Walsh said a DEA vehicle collided with another car at an intersection during the search. No one was injured and the damage was minor, he said. The DEA officials said the cocaine was delivered to Smith by his brother, Chris Smith, 35, of Lakewood, just before the undercover officer bought it. Other officers then watched Chris Smith as he drove away and arrested him within a few blocks of the restaurant parking lot, "with his 2-year-old son in the car," Sweetin said. Officers later handed the boy over to his mother. Smith was a rookie running back at the 1988 Super Bowl in San Diego when he rushed for 204 yards, still a Super Bowl record, and scored two touchdowns in the Washington Redskins' 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos. But six months later, Smith showed up for training camp out of shape, gained 470 yards during the regular season and was cut by the Redskins. He signed briefly with the Dallas Cowboys the next season but never played in another NFL game. He settled in Denver, where his brother lived. In the 1990s he fell more than $70,000 behind on child-support payments for two daughters living in California and, at one point, fled to his hometown, Hobbs, N.M., to avoid being arrested for non-payment. He later contacted law enforcement authorities in California and said he wanted to cooperate. Walsh said Timmy Smith has no record of prior drug-related arrests and that Chris Smith was arrested once previously on a drug misdemeanor charge, but was not convicted. The Smith brothers are in the Denver jail. They will appear Monday in Colorado U.S. District Court. |