LAST S.A. COP IN DRUG STING IS SENTENCED

The last of nine police officers who agreed to guard cocaine shipments was
sentenced Thursday to almost three years in prison.

Thursday's sentencing of former San Antonio Police Officer Lawrence Bustos
closed the door on what has been described as a sordid episode of local
law-enforcement.

Bustos, pleading for leniency from U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado,
said he rued the day he allowed a fellow officer to recruit him into a
conspiracy among six officers and a police sergeant's uncle.

He used the words "stupidity" and "paralyzed with grief" as he recalled
Sept. 21, 2000, the day he showed up in his Air Force Reserves uniform to
escorta car he was told carried 75 kilograms of cocaine.

"I would gladly give all my earthly possessions to live that day again
differently," the married father of four said.

By agreeing to shepherd the car, Bustos stumbled into an FBI sting. Bustos
confessed after his March 2001 arrest.

Prado sentenced Bustos, 38, to 34 months, the second lowest sentence given
to the six officers who plotted together.

The FBI arrested 10 officers and two civilians in the undercover
investigation that stretched four years.