OFFICER ROBBED SUSPECTS, U.S. SAYS

Courts: Defendant Is Accused Of Using His Position At The LAPD To
Steal Drugs And Money.

SAN DIEGO--A Los Angeles police officer who was arrested last week on
charges of trying to buy 10 kilograms of cocaine has been using his
position at the LAPD to rob suspects of drugs and money for at least
two years, a federal prosecutor charged in court Thursday. LAPD
Officer Ruben Palomares, 31, and four other men allegedly bought the
10 kilograms of cocaine as part of a more ambitious scheme to steal
50 kilograms from the drug supplier in the future, said Assistant
U.S. Atty. Randy Jones.

"This was a prelude to a larger drug rip-off," Jones said. The
allegations against Palomares remain unproved, but the hearing
Thursday represented the latest in a growing series of criminal
charges against members of the LAPD, many of them, including
Palomares, connected to the department's Rampart Division. Palomares'
lawyer accused prosecutors of invoking Rampart to smear the officer,
and other defense attorneys at Thursday's hearing said prosecution
characterizations of their clients were inaccurate as well.

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks declined to comment on the
charges against the officer and on any connection they might have to
the LAPD's own investigation of him.

In court, the prosecutor said Palomares attempted to use his LAPD
badge to talk his way out of the alleged crime when he was arrested
June 8 in Chula Vista. "He said he was an LAPD officer on an
undercover operation," Jones said. Palomares later recanted,
admitting he was not on duty, the prosecutor said. The officer then
said it was the first time he had been involved in a drug
transaction, Jones alleged.

Prosecutors contend otherwise. At a hearing in federal court in which
Jones successfully argued that Palomares should be held without bail,
he said the officer provided half of the $130,000 to buy the 10 kilos
of cocaine.

During a consensual search of Palomares' Diamond Bar home, agents
seized 13 firearms--including six unregistered semiautomatic assault
rifles, 150 boxes of ammunition, and a money counting machine, which
Jones said were common tools of drug traffickers. Agents also found a
statue near Palomares' swimming pool that was equipped with a secret
compartment, Jones said. The statue's compartment was empty, the
prosecutor said. According to Jones, Palomares used informants whom
he encountered during his job as a police officer to identify drug
dealers. Then, Jones alleged, Palomares would rob the dealers of
their drugs and money. Jones offered little evidence to back his
charges during the two-hour hearing to determine whether the
defendants were entitled to post bail. That was a point Palomares'
attorney seized on outside the courtroom. "All this drug kingpin
rip-off stuff is brand new to the case," said attorney Robert Rico.
"I think they are trying to piggy-back on the Rampart scandal to make
my client the monster he is not."

The government's allegations against Palomares in the current case
are strikingly reminiscent of the now-admitted exploits of Rafael
Perez, the ex-LAPD officer who cut a deal on his own drug charges and
launched what has become known as the Rampart corruption scandal.

In fact, Perez implicated Palomares and another officer in an
allegedly unjustified shooting of a reputed drug dealer in 1998. LAPD
and FBI officials say they are investigating Palomares in connection
with that shooting, but the officer has never been charged with
wrongdoing in that case. Palomares--clad in an orange, jail-issue
jumpsuit--sat with his hands in his lap and did not speak during the
hearing. Rico said his client is a father of five, whose woman
companion is also an LAPD officer. Charged along with Palomares are
Dennis Garcia, Jose Juan Garcia, Gabriel Loaiza and Alvin Moon. As
Jones argued before Magistrate Judge Anthony J. Battaglia that each
man should be held without bail, he laid out their alleged roles in
the 10-kilo drug deal.

Dennis Garcia, who spent seven years in prison for dealing a pound of
cocaine in Hawaii, was the man "who kind of got the ball rolling,"
Jones alleged. Dennis Garcia recruited Jose Garcia--it was not clear
if the men are related--as one of the money men to buy the drugs, the
prosecutor said. Jose Garcia allegedly boasted about being "a major
player in the drug trafficking trade," with connections in Oakland
and Chicago. His statements were allegedly captured on videotape as
he met with undercover agents aboard a boat in San Diego.

Loaiza, Jones said, was Palomares' "right-hand man," a wannabe police
officer who was the only defendant who declined to make a post-arrest
statement. "There'll be no snitches," Jones quoted the defendant as
having earlier warned his alleged partners. Loaiza was allegedly in
the car with Dennis Garcia and Palomares when they arrived in Chula
Vista to pick up the drugs. He allegedly sat on a park bench
"conducting counter-surveillance" as the deal went down, according to
DEA agents.

The prosecutor said Loaiza has pending job applications with several
police departments.

"He wanted to become a police officer so he could get a badge [and]
do the types of rip-offs Mr. Palomares was doing," Jones said. Jones
said Moon, the driver of one of the cars in the alleged drug deal,
recklessly attempted to elude DEA agents and police during a brief
chase through the streets of Chula Vista.

Defense attorneys for the men painted markedly different pictures of
their clients. Paul Neuharth said Dennis Garcia, 45, was employed in
the home construction business and had made an earnest effort to stay
out of trouble since his release from prison.

Jose Garcia, according to attorney Barry Hammond, is a real estate
broker whose criminal background consisted only of minor brushes with
the law. Loaiza, according to Rico, who stood in for attorney Ira
Salzman, is a licensed security guard who has lived in Montebello for
25 years. "He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," Rico
said. And Moon is a 25-year-old student at Pasadena City College who
works at this parent's dry-cleaning business, said his lawyer, Jeremy
D. Warren. Warren said Moon cooperated by making a full statement.
"It appears Mr. Moon was recruited only as a driver."

In the end, Battaglia--who was not asked to consider the guilt or
innocence of the defendants before him but merely to decide whether
they could make bail--agreed with the government's arguments that
each of the men either represented a flight risk or was a danger to
the community, or both, and ordered them held without bail.

What remained unclear after the court hearing was how each of the
defendants knew one another.

In an interview with The Times, Loaiza's father said his son and
Palomares grew up and went to school together in East Los Angeles.
But then the Palomares family moved away in the late 1980s or early
1990s and the family later learned that Ruben Palomares had become a
police officer. Moon, said prosecutor Jones, "has known Mr. Palomares
for some time." He did not elaborate.