A thug narc gets a short prison stay, and more. Let's get to it.

[image:1 align:right]In Houston, a former Waller County DA's Office investigator was convicted Wednesday on drug trafficking and money laundering charges after he was ensnared in a sting operation and carried what he thought was heroin from Texas into Louisiana in his marked police vehicle. Mohammed "Alex" Ahmed Kassem, 49, was convicted by a federal jury of attempted possession with intent to distribute heroin and money laundering after a four-day trial. He made at least three different trips carrying ersatz heroin and was paid $31,000 by what he thought were cartel operatives. Kassem claimed at trial that he was conducting undercover operations with approval from the Waller County DA, but the DA's office refuted that claim. He faces a June 13 sentencing date and is looking at up to life in prison on the trafficking charge and 20 years for money laundering.

In New York City, a former investigator for the Nassau County DA's Office and DEA task force member was sentenced last Thursday to three months in federal prison for kicking a handcuffed and restrained prisoner in the chest and stomach and then lying about it. Now former narc Dustin Genco, 51, forcefully kicked the victim, resulting in injury to the victim, then lied to a federal agent by saying the victim had continued to resist arrest after being handcuffed. He pleaded guilty to deprivation of civil rights.