May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Sixteen former and current members of U.S. law enforcement and the military will plead guilty to accepting bribes as part of a cocaine sting operation in the U.S. Southwest, the Justice Department said today.
The accused, including former Arizona corrections officers and members of the Arizona Army National Guard, each escorted at least two shipments of cocaine to destinations such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, the department said in a news release. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation posed as narcotics traffickers in the undercover operation, which began in December 2001.
To protect the shipments of cocaine, the defendants wore their official uniforms, used official vehicles and, on occasion, used their authority to prevent police stops and seizures, the Justice Department said. One defendant, a federal inspector, allegedly waved a truck through the U.S.-Mexico border without inspection, believing it contained at least 40 kilograms of cocaine.
``Now more than ever, it is critically important that those on the front lines of our nation's borders remain uncorrupted,'' Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General John C. Richter said in a statement.
Guilty Pleas
In papers filed in court today in Tucson, Arizona, the 16 defendants agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to obtain cash bribes, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Each defendant also agreed to cooperate in the continuing investigation, the Justice Department said. Their court appearances were scheduled for later today in Tucson.
Charged in the case were seven current and former members of the Arizona Army National Guard, five former Arizona corrections officers, a former federal corrections officer, a former U.S. Army sergeant and a former officer with the Nogales, Arizona, police department, along with the former federal border inspector. One of the former National Guardsmen also once worked as an Arizona corrections officer.
All told, the defendants transported more than 560 kilograms of cocaine and accepted more than $222,000 in bribes, the Justice Department said.
In a 2002 instance described in the news release, several defendants drove three government vehicles to a secret desert airstrip near Benson, Arizona, where they met a twin-engine King Air plane flown by undercover FBI agents.
The defendants, in uniform, supervised the unloading of about 60 kilograms of cocaine, which they drove to a resort hotel in Phoenix. There, an FBI agent posing a drug trafficker paid them in cash.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aky.IauwnUoo&refer=us
The accused, including former Arizona corrections officers and members of the Arizona Army National Guard, each escorted at least two shipments of cocaine to destinations such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, the department said in a news release. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation posed as narcotics traffickers in the undercover operation, which began in December 2001.
To protect the shipments of cocaine, the defendants wore their official uniforms, used official vehicles and, on occasion, used their authority to prevent police stops and seizures, the Justice Department said. One defendant, a federal inspector, allegedly waved a truck through the U.S.-Mexico border without inspection, believing it contained at least 40 kilograms of cocaine.
``Now more than ever, it is critically important that those on the front lines of our nation's borders remain uncorrupted,'' Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General John C. Richter said in a statement.
Guilty Pleas
In papers filed in court today in Tucson, Arizona, the 16 defendants agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to obtain cash bribes, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Each defendant also agreed to cooperate in the continuing investigation, the Justice Department said. Their court appearances were scheduled for later today in Tucson.
Charged in the case were seven current and former members of the Arizona Army National Guard, five former Arizona corrections officers, a former federal corrections officer, a former U.S. Army sergeant and a former officer with the Nogales, Arizona, police department, along with the former federal border inspector. One of the former National Guardsmen also once worked as an Arizona corrections officer.
All told, the defendants transported more than 560 kilograms of cocaine and accepted more than $222,000 in bribes, the Justice Department said.
In a 2002 instance described in the news release, several defendants drove three government vehicles to a secret desert airstrip near Benson, Arizona, where they met a twin-engine King Air plane flown by undercover FBI agents.
The defendants, in uniform, supervised the unloading of about 60 kilograms of cocaine, which they drove to a resort hotel in Phoenix. There, an FBI agent posing a drug trafficker paid them in cash.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aky.IauwnUoo&refer=us