Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

A crooked Boston cop is headed for prison, a sticky-fingered Indianapolis cop now faces charges, and the trial of two Maryland prisoners accused of killing a guard is opening a window into corruption in the now shuttered House of Corrections. Let's get to it:

In Boston, a former Boston police officer was sentenced Monday to 18 years in federal prison for protecting cocaine shipments for FBI agents posing as drug dealers. Former Officer Nelson Carrasquillo was one of three Boston officers nailed in the sting; one other was sentenced to 13 years, while the other has yet to be sentenced. They were arrested in 2006 after traveling to Miami to collect $36,000 in payment from the supposed dealers. Carrasquillo provided counter-surveillance services, monitored Boston police radio, and guided a drug dealer in his travels, prosecutors said.

In Indianapolis, an Indianapolis police officer was arrested Monday for stealing a $725 money order during the search of a drug suspect's home and cashing it for himself last year. Officer Jason Edwards, 36, is charged with forgery and theft. Edwards was one of a group of narcotics officers who raided the home last December. The suspect later reported that the money order, with which he intended to pay his rent, was missing. His bank told him the money order had been cashed, with Jason Edwards in the "pay to the order of" line, and a Jason Edwards signature on the back. The suspect then contacted police, and Edwards subsequently admitted to taking the money order, although he claimed he found it on the ground outside the home. The eight-year veteran is now suspended without pay.

In Baltimore, 21 prison guards at the Maryland House of Corrections were implicated in contraband smuggling and other corrupt activities, according to state police reports given to defense attorneys for two inmates accused of killing a guard at the now shuttered prison. That guard, David McGuinn, was one of two killed at the prison during 2006, which led Gov. Martin O'Malley to shut it down shortly after he took office. Defense attorneys for the inmates are using the state police reports to allege that corrupt guards involved in smuggling "ordered the hit" on McGuinn, that they moved critical evidence -- the shank used to stab him -- and that they beat up an inmate and planted the shank on him to cover-up a beating they inflicted on him the day of McGuinn's death. Look for more to be revealed as this case moves forward.