Weekly:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
5/20/05
The temptations of prohibition are writ large this week with a massive bust of cops and soldiers in Arizona, while on the East Coast, one cop is going to prison in Buffalo and two more appear headed that way in Baltimore. And out in the Rockies, having sex with a snitch is proving troublesome for one wayward law enforcement Lothario. Let's get to it: In Tucson, 22 former and current soldiers and law enforcement personnel so far have pled guilty to conspiracy charges in an FBI sting posing as cocaine traffickers paid to let loads of the drug get through. According to the Justice Department, while many of those pleading guilty were lured into protecting drug shipments during the sting, at least nine of them had been engaged in real drug trafficking using official uniforms and vehicles to get past Border Patrol checkpoints with more than half a ton of cocaine. Those pleading guilty so far include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, five current and former members of the Arizona Air National Guard and the state corrections department, and a Nogales, Arizona, police officer, the Justice Department reported May 12, when it announced the pleas of 16 people. Six more have pled guilty since then, with more to come, prosecutors said. In Baltimore, federal prosecutors announced at a May 12 press conference that they had charged two Baltimore police officers and another man with ripping off drug dealers and selling the drugs themselves. Officers William King, 35, and Antonio Murray, 34, who worked plainclothes in the department's housing authority unit, used their police powers and weapons to stop drug dealers on the streets or in their vehicles, steal their drugs and cash, then let them go without facing charges. The third man, Antonio Mosby, 39, acted as a finger-man and look out, prosecutors said. All three are charged with conspiracy to distribute drugs, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and extortion, and carrying firearms while dealing drugs. King is also charged with possession of marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute. All face up to life in prison. In Buffalo, former narcotics detective Sylvestre Acosta was sentenced to 45 years in prison May 11 for stealing money from drug suspects, planting evidence, and providing false information to obtain search warrants. Acosta was one of several Buffalo Police Department detectives arrested in a 2003 corruption probe. Detective Paul Skinner was convicted of federal civil rights violations in the case along with Acosta in December. He faces a May 27 sentencing date. In Durango, Colorado, a sheriff's deputy working with the Southwest Drug Task Force is under investigation for having sex with a female informant, the Durango Herald reported May 12. Task Force Investigator Tom Fritzell's unseemly dalliance came to light as the result of a motion filed by the informant, Leslie Parker of Durango. Parker had been busted on methamphetamine possession charges, but agreed to become a snitch if authorities would "make her case disappear." But the motion seeks dismissal of the charges on the grounds that Fritzell abused his authority and possibly committed a crime when he encountered her in a local bar, reprimanded her for being there, then asked to follow her home and had sex with her. During the encounter, the motion said, they discussed her case and engaged in "businesslike pillow talk." Nothing like a little leverage to help get laid, huh?
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