Weekly:
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Week's
Corrupt
Cops
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9/9/05
Another mass bust of cops and soldiers in Arizona, a pair of DC cops having to explain why they had 90 pounds of coke in their luggage coming into Miami from South America, and a Honolulu cop busted for selling speed all make the Corrupt Cops feature this week. Without further ado: In Tucson, federal prosecutors announced last week they had snared another 16 current and former soldiers and law enforcement officers in Arizona for agreeing to help FBI agents posing as cocaine traffickers get their wares through the border. Just four months ago, those same federal prosecutors arrested 17 more police and soldiers on similar charges. All 16 of those arrested last week have agreed to plead guilty, the prosecutors said. They included two current and three former members of the Arizona Army National Guard, seven former corrections officers with the Arizona Department of Corrections, two former soldiers, an ex-Marine and a former Nogales, AZ, police officer. The conspiracy in which they were charged was responsible for transporting nearly 1500 pounds of cocaine, said acting Assistant Attorney General John Richter in a press statement. The defendants wore official uniforms, carried official ID, and used official vehicles to skate through border and Arizona Department of Public Safety checkpoints, and to avoid police stops, searches, and seizures. They face up to five years in prison on cocaine conspiracy charges, but prosecutor John Scott said all pleading guilty would probably only serve 34 to 36 months. In Honolulu, Police Officer James Corn Jr. was arrested August 24 on charges of selling methamphetamine. The bust came in a joint operation involving the DEA and the local High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) team. His police powers had been suspended after another investigation last year and he had been working in the department's communications department. Now he will be working on preserving his freedom. In Washington, DC, two veteran police officers have been placed on administrative leave in connection with a cocaine bust last week at Miami International Airport. Officer Thomas Stephenson, 51, a 20-year veteran, and Lt. Wayne Stevenson, 48, a 22-year veteran, were detained and questioned but not arrested after federal agents seized 90 pounds of cocaine in their luggage upon their return from Guyana, where they had a contract to train police officers. DC police and US border services are both keeping mum so far.
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