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Newsbrief:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
10/29/04
The daily grind of drug war
corruption continues. This week, we find crooked deputies in Tennessee,
dope-planting cops in Pennsylvania, and big trouble for the federal government
and some Customs agents in Texas.
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In Memphis, a former Shelby
County sheriff's deputy pleaded guilty October 19 to two counts related
to his robbery of a drug dealer in a Millington hotel room. Jodie
Chambers, 39, admitted stealing drugs and cash, piling it in his squad
car, and spending the proceeds. He left with $6,000, 12 pounds of
marijuana and four ounces of cocaine. He gave an accomplice the drugs
to sell, and they split the $8,000 profit, Parker said. What Chambers
didn't know was that both his accomplice and the drug dealer were FBI informants.
No word yet on sentencing, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.
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Two days later, a federal grand
jury in northeastern Pennsylvania indicted two police officers for planting
drugs during raids last year. Jeremy Sommers, 28, formerly of the
Lansford Police Department, and Michael Weaver, 35, formerly of the Coaldale
Police Department were charged with planting drugs in at least two cases
and then arresting people based on the bogus evidence. Sommers and
Weaver are charged with conspiring to violate civil rights, conspiracy
to obstruct the investigation, obstruction and lying to federal agents,
the Associated Press reported.
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And the same day, in El Paso,
Texas, the family of Luis Padilla filed suit against the US government,
the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) unit in a shocking case previously noted in this space where Customs
agents supervising a Mexican cartel drug informant allowed him to engage
in criminal activity, including most spectacularly, the murders of at least
12 people -- some of which occurred while ICE agents were on the phone
with the informant. Luis Padilla, a US citizen and El Paso resident,
was the last of the victims. The lawsuit alleges that if Customs
had pulled its informant when it first realized he was killing people,
Padilla would be alive today. Padilla, the lawsuit says, was not
involved in the drug trade, but was killed because he witnessed a cartel
kidnapping.
-- END --
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