10 OFFICERS IN TEXAS HELD IN DRUG STING; SUSPECTS, INCLUDING 8 FROM SAN
ANTONIO, ALSO ACCUSED OF THEFT

Eight San Antonio police officers, a Bexar County sheriff's deputy and a
reserve constable were arrested Thursday morning on federal warrants
accusing them of stealing government money, protecting narcotics shipments
and transporting a substance they thought was cocaine -- sometimes while
they were armed and in uniform.

Federal agents made the arrests after an investigation that the FBI and the
U.S. attorney's office in San Antonio started in 1997.

"We are sickened and shocked by the inexcusable actions of these officers,"
said San Antonio Police Chief Al Philippus.

The disclosures were a "kick in the gut," Philippus said. But he added that
they also demonstrated the department's willingness to root out bad officers.

The FBI gave Philippus information about the investigation in 1998, said
Roderick Beverly, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio
division. The investigation started because of information gleaned from
other narcotics cases.

Federal agents posed as drug dealers to catch the officers, who are accused
of agreeing to protect drug shipments from interference from police and
other drug dealers.

Sometimes the officers were in uniform and carried their department-issued
weapons when drugs were moved around the city, Beverly said.

A powdery substance used in the sting was not cocaine, he said.

Nevertheless, "these officers believed they were involved in a real drug
deal," U.S. Attorney Bill Blagg said in a statement. "We paid for their
badges and guns."

The officers will be prosecuted "to the fullest extent" for "selling out to
drug dealers," Blagg's statement says.

The sheriff's deputy, Richard Rowlett Buchanan, 44, was charged with one
count of theft. Buchanan was accused of breaking into an automobile July
13, 1998, and stealing $2,000. If convicted, he could face a maximum
penalty of 10 years in federal prison.

The charges against the eight officers and the reserve deputy constable are
all related to drug crimes, and each faces 10 years to life in federal
prison, according to Blagg's office.

The highest-ranking officer arrested is San Antonio police Sgt. Conrad
Fragozo Jr., 36. A federal indictment accuses Fragozo of "attempting to
transport or protect narcotics" nine times from Jan. 13, 2000, to Dec. 20.
After each shipment, the sergeant and other defendants were paid between
$2,000 and $6,500 in cash, federal prosecutors said.

San Antonio patrol officer David Anthony Morales, 39, is accused of
carrying a gun "while transporting more than five kilograms of what he
believed was cocaine from one San Antonio hotel to another," Blagg's
statement says.

Morales was paid $5,000 for the deliveries, made twice in 1999, prosecutors
said.

Patrol officer Alfred Valdes, 28, is accused of receiving $800 for
providing sensitive police information to undercover agents whom he
believed to be drug dealers.

The reserve deputy constable, Gilbert Andrade Jr., 28, is accused of
carrying 5 kilograms of what he believed was cocaine from a San Antonio bus
station to a hotel Aug. 15, 1999. Undercover agents, in return, paid
Andrade $2,000, Blagg's office said.

The other San Antonio officers are Patrick Bowron, 27; Peter Saenz, 31;
Arthur Gutierrez Jr., 38; Lawrence Bustos, 37; and Manuel Cedillo Jr., 35.

Two other people, including an uncle of Fragozo, were also arrested on drug
charges.

Philippus said the department will investigate to determine if any of the
officers' supervisors should be disciplined.

Some of the officers were arrested Thursday after the morning roll call at
work and while they were in uniform. All arrests were made without
incident, and the officers were placed on administrative leave without pay,
the officials said.