MORE COPS ARRESTED IN NEW BUST IN PUERTO RICO

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Seven police officers, including three
accused of selling pure-grade heroin from their patrol cars, were
arrested Wednesday in the latest corruption scandal to hit the
beleaguered Puerto Rico Police Department.

Five of the officers and a mechanic related to one of them were
rounded up Wednesday on various parts of the island. The other two
were among 29 officers arrested two weeks ago as part of the FBI's
Operation Lost Honor, the largest police-corruption probe in the
agency's history.

The officers arrested Wednesday are accused of receiving thousands of
dollars from undercover agents posing as drug dealers in exchange for
the use of their weapons, cars and identities as police officers to
transport and protect cocaine shipments.

Three of them -- Alex Lopez Lopez, Jose R. Martinez Hernandez and
Wilfredo Martinez Rodriguez -- went a step further by selling 250
grams, or 8.75 ounces, of Colombian heroin to agents of the Drug
Enforcement Administration, authorities said.

The officers, agents said, sold the heroin from their patrol cars
while in uniform.

Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney Guillermo Gil urged police officers
Wednesday to blow the whistle on colleagues suspected of wrongdoing. A
similar plea by Gil after the Lost Honor arrests already has yielded
results, he said.

"We've already gotten a lot of calls, but there have to be more," Gil
said, addressing the police officers through the media. "You
yourselves have to clean your own house."

Police Superintendent Pierre Vivoni reassured residents that local and
federal authorities were rooting out corrupt officers in the 19,000-
strong police force. Residents, he said, should not be alarmed because
the arrested officers represent a small portion of the department.

"We will keep detecting and eradicating any remnant of corruption,
wherever it is," Vivoni said. "We've started at home, by being the
example, so there should be no doubt that there is no room for corrupt
delinquents or two-faced agents here."

Wednesday's batch of arrests led by the DEA stunned a department
already reeling from a series of corruption accusations, brutality
claims and other irregularities in the past few months.

In Operation Lost Honor, the 29 officers, a corrections officer and
two civilians arrested Aug. 14 were caught on videotape transporting
and protecting cocaine shipments. They also were videotaped taking
money from an FBI informant posing as a drug dealer.

The tapes also show an evidence technician offering a fake drug
trafficker advice on how to get rid of a homicide victim. Hit fast-
forward and the tape shows another officer offering to kill a drug
dealer for $20,000 in cash.

Videotapes also were used in the latest corruption case announced
Wednesday.

In addition to the three officers accused of dealing heroin, Officers
Gabriel Maldonado Colon, Manuel Santiago Franco, Jose Torres Jorge,
Juan Lopez Roman and mechanic Miguel Rosario Diaz are charged with
helping to transport cocaine for undercover agents they thought were
traffickers. They're also accused of working with a real network of
drug traffickers on the island.

Rogelio Guevara, special agent in charge of the DEA's Caribbean Field
Division, would not comment on the fate of the drug-trafficking
network except to say the investigation continues. All of the officers
also are charged with carrying firearms during a drug crime. If
convicted, they face anywhere from 10 years to life in prison.

"These individuals don't deserve the honor of being called police
officers," Guevara said.

Vivoni feels the same way and is taking more steps to deal with the
problem. Besides strengthening internal supervision and
investigations, he has vowed to have the police screen prospective
recruits more carefully and put ethical and civil-rights training on
the front burner at the police academy.

Vivoni is reacting not only to the recent drug arrests but to other
problems, as well.

Six officers in Loiza face police-brutality charges after going to a
child's birthday party and beating people with nightsticks. The melee
was caught on videotape and shown repeatedly on the evening news,
enraging many viewers.

Charges are pending against four officers in the central town of
Utuado. The officers, who were out of uniform, made a traffic stop and
then shot at the driver who sped off thinking it was a robbery attempt.

On Monday, a mechanic complained that officers in Loiza beat him up.
Police are investigating allegations that supervisors did nothing and
laughed at the mechanic's relatives when they tried to file a
complaint at the local precinct.

And hours after federal agents rounded up the 29 officers charged in
Operation Lost Honor, Puerto Rico police arrested two of their own on
charges of taking a car-theft victim's ATM card when they returned her
purse and withdrawing money from her bank account.

Vivoni expects that more corrupt officers will be identified as those
arrested begin talking in exchange for lighter sentences.

"I presume that they may offer information that will expand these
investigations," Vivoni said. "This isn't over."