SAN ANTONIO POLICE OFFICER AGREES TO TESTIFY AGAINST OTHER OFFICERS
IN COCAINE CASE

SAN ANTONIO -- In exchange for not more than 10 years in prison, a
San Antonio police officer has agreed to testify against fellow
patrolmen accused of plotting to protect Central Texas cocaine
shipments.

In a deal filed Friday, Lawrence Bustos, who faced up to 24 years in
prison if convicted, can ask the judge for an even lower penalty if
his cooperation merits a reduced sentence, prosecutors said.

Bustos' attorney, Roy Barrera Jr., said he and Bustos, after
reviewing hours of audio and videotapes, became convinced the
government would win in court.

The secretly recorded tapes feature an undercover FBI agent who posed
as a drug smuggler and who, according to the plea deal, hired police
officers as guards.

The FBI publicly ended the charade in March when agents arrested 10
officers plus two civilians. Of those, six officers and an officer's
uncle were charged with conspiring to distribute the drugs.

Among them was Bustos, who pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count
while prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining charge of attempted
cocaine possession.

The officers were arrested as part of an FBI investigation that began
in 1997, after agents heard rumors that officers in the area had been
working with drug dealers.

Charged with attempting to possess and distribute cocaine were San
Antonio officers Conrad Fragozo, Patrick Bowron, David Anthony
Morales, Peter Saenz, Arthur Gutierrez Jr., Manuel Cedillo Jr. and
Bustos.

Officer Alfred Valdes was charged with aiding the attempted
possession and distribution of cocaine.

Twelve people in all were arrested in the FBI's police corruption
sting, including Bexar County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Rowlett
"Bucky" Buchanan, who was charged with theft of public money.

Prosecutors say Bustos participated in the alleged scheme only once,
agreeing last year to escort a car carrying what he believed was 75
kilograms of cocaine from San Antonio to Schertz. According to the
plea agreement, Bustos collected $2,500 while working alongside
Bowron on Sept. 21.

Bustos came to the hotel while on duty with the Air Force Reserve and
talked about needing to get back to the base, the agreement states. A
snippet of tape shown during Bustos' April detention hearing depicted
a man in an Air Force uniform, generally giving terse, but revealing,
answers to the undercover agent.

"What are you escorting?" asked the agent known as "Ricardo."

"Coke," replied the man identified by prosecutors as Bustos.

At the detention hearing, Bustos rallied an impressive cast of
supporters to lobby for his release, including a county probation
officer. His wife, brother and friends said Bustos was a 1982
graduate of San Antonio Jay High School, 1991 Airman of the Year for
his Kelly Air Force Base unit and a father of three two daughters,
ages 9 and 3, and a 16-year-old son.

Testifying at the hearing, Bustos revealed the financial pressures
under which he labored. He said he paid $1,108 a month on a house
valued at $118,000. He owed a $10,000 bank loan and had $30,000 in
credit card debt, in addition to monthly payments of about $700 on a
sport utility vehicle and a car.