LARGO, Fla. — A Clearwater Police officer was arrested for tipping off drug traffickers and using his position as a detective to help them get away with their crimes, according to the sheriff's office.
Fredrick Lise, who was also president of the police union, was arrested Tuesday on eight felony charges for using technology he had access to as a detective in the narcotics unit to inform drug traffickers Matthew Turner, 39, and Henry Smith, 42, about the investigation police were doing into them, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference.
Lise, 32, set up an alert system so he would get a notification if there was an investigation into Turner and Smith, Gualtieri said. When he got a notification that law enforcement started to look into the two men, Lise reportedly told them.
"It's a kick in the gut to everyone. It's a betrayal," Gualtieri said. "It's a betrayal of everything we do and what we stand for."
Gualtieri said Lise told them confidential information such as telling Turner when his phone was tapped. This impeded law enforcement's investigation because they kept having to get new court orders to tap the new phones as Turner kept switching phones. It also made it harder for law enforcement to catch Turner and Smith because they were always hyper-aware of being watched by law enforcement.
Pinellas County law enforcement caught on to Lise and found text messages between him, Turner and Smith where it was revealed that he was allegedly telling them inside information.
"I got you bro," Lise told Smith over text, according to Gualtieri. Lise also met up with Turner and Smith multiple times, and texts showed Turner and Smith talking about how Lise was telling them to "get on a plane and leave," the sheriff said.
There were also times when undercover officers bought drugs from Turner and Smith. Gualtieri said Lise put these officers in danger because if Turner and Smith were suspicious, they could have killed someone.
"Lisa is not representative of law enforcement in Pinellas County," Gualtieri said. "This is an anomaly."
Turner and Smith were arrested at the end of July with nearly two dozen others over charges related to drug trafficking and dog fighting. At a press conference last month, Pinellas County deputies described the investigation that began last summer.
At the July conference, Gualtieri said Turner was getting drugs from a source in California to distribute around Pinellas County. He said deputies seized more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine and more than 20 pounds of cocaine at a stash house found in an apartment in Largo on U.S. 19 and Roosevelt Boulevard.
Over the course of the year, Gualtieri said the suspects brought almost 500 pounds of cocaine and 660 pounds of meth into Florida. All of that is worth more than $4 million. There was also a dog fighting ring connected to the drug operation that was busted with a total of 111 dogs being rescued.
Lise was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on a $200,000 bond.
