|
|
| U.S. soldiers, law officers snared in border drug sting |
| By Los Angeles Times |
| Published: 05/16/2005 |
|
A brazen conspiracy among U.S. law enforcement officers and soldiers to smuggle cocaine from Mexico was disclosed last week by the Justice Department, adding to concerns that public corruption north of the border was growing. Wearing uniforms and even driving U.S. military vehicles, 16 suspects were caught in a sting run by an FBI-led task force. Eleven entered guilty pleas in Tucson, Ariz.; the other five have agreed to do so soon. One federal inspector waved trucks he believed were carrying drugs across the border from Mexico to the U.S., according to the FBI. In another case, a group of the defendants used Army National Guard Humvees to transport 132 pounds of cocaine from a desert landing strip to a resort hotel in Phoenix, where they received cash from an undercover FBI agent. Justice Department officials describe the case as a "widespread bribery and extortion conspiracy." It is one of the largest public corruption cases along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years. The defendants "used their color of authority to prevent police stops, searches and seizures of narcotics as they drove the cocaine shipments on highways that passed through checkpoints," the Justice Department said in a statement. The defendants pleaded guilty to transporting 1,232 pounds of cocaine and accepting $222,000 in cash for their activities. The 16 defendants are or have been employed by a variety of agencies, including the U.S. Army, the Arizona Army National Guard, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the Arizona Department of Corrections, the local police department in Nogales, Ariz., and the immigration and naturalization service. The three-year investigation, known as Operation Lively Green, was run by the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Tucson police department. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think