Weekly:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
6/17/05
Another week, another batch of prohibition-related tales of law enforcement corruption. A sheriff on the border succumbs to temptation, a prosecutor in San Francisco trades leniency for crank, two jail guards in New Jersey see their retail operation crash and burn, and a love-struck West Virginia cop makes a bad choice. Let's get to it: In Brownsville, Texas, former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu and four others, including two sheriff's department employees, were charged June 9 with massive, systematic corruption that netted them tens of thousands of dollars. According to a federal indictment released that day, a continuing criminal enterprise led by Cantu provided information about drug investigations and offered protection to drug traffickers and the operators of an illegal gambling operation. According to the indictment, one defendant told a convicted drug dealer Cantu would let him escape for $50,000. In another incident, the department seized $25,000 in purported drug money from a government snitch, whom one of the defendants told that the department "helped" traffickers and Cantu wanted the money as a "protection" payment. Cantu faces eight counts, including conspiracy to possess marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute, extortion, money laundering, obstruction, and operating a continuing criminal enterprise. He is in jail and looking at up to 35 years in prison. The others face similar charges. In San Francisco, Assistant District Attorney Robert Roland, 34, was arrested June 11 on federal corruption charges. Roland is accused of arranging a light sentence -- no jail time -- for a drug-dealing defendant in exchange for free drugs. According to the indictment, Ryan Nyberg was looking at felony meth and ecstasy dealing charges when an acquaintance of Roland's, Eric Shaw, hooked the two up. Prosecutors cited text messages from Nyberg such as one saying "I need 80 bucks to get the meds for the DA" and another one saying he had to run to "the district attorney's house." The day after that message, Nyberg delivered dope to Roland three times, the indictment alleges. Roland now faces conspiracy charges, as well as a count of lying to investigators when he said he did not use drugs. His attorneys say he is being set up by Nyberg, who is cooperating with federal officials and has accepted a sealed plea bargain in a separate case. In Essex County, New Jersey, corrections officers Malcolm Hughes and Derrick Reynolds were charged Monday with smuggling drugs into the county jail. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, authorities expect more arrests to follow. After a two-month investigation, Hughes was searched as he came to work last Friday and was found to be carrying marijuana and Ecstasy, prosecutors said in a Monday news conference. Reynolds was also found in possession of marijuana and Ecstasy and was arrested last Saturday. Hughes had 23 grams of pot in three separate bags, while Reynolds had 7 grams in nine bags. [Ooh! And he was ripping off the prisoners!] The pair had 14 Ecstasy tablets between them. Prosecutors alleged that the pair were working with street gangs to smuggle drugs, cell phones, tobacco, and other contraband into the jail. Also arrested was a Newark women described as the girlfriend of an imprisoned Bloods gang member who directed drug sales in the jail. In Charleston, West Virginia, former police officer William Hart, 44, was sentenced to five years of probation June 11 for letting a woman in a drug case keep money that should have been seized. The 24-year-veteran was apparently blinded by love instead of greed. He let Rachel Ursala Rader keep $3,000 that had been hidden by her former husband, who is serving a life sentence on drug trafficking charges because he was romantically involved with her, he told the court. He was later briefly married to her. The 24-year veteran officer was charged in April 2003 with one misdemeanor count of theft of government property and pled guilty in January.
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