DRUG SCANDAL IN THE DESERT

The government made them do it.

That will be the legal defense for 10 soldiers from Fort Huachuca, Ariz.,
charged in a $3 million drug plot.

According to federal court records, the soldiers transported more than 100
kilos of cocaine and 1,000 kilos of marijuana through Fort Huachuca and a
border checkpoint to the adjacent city of Sierra Vista and farther-away
Tucson - mostly in Army-owned vans with U. S. government license plates.

The whole time, they wore their BDUs or Class A uniforms to allay
suspicions on post and at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint, the records
say. Fort Huachuca is headquarters of the Army Intelligence Center, which
every year schools several thousand soldiers in military intelligence.

The prosecutors say the soldiers - six of whom served in MI units - were
able to cruise right through the post in their drug-laden vans with no
questions asked.

For four months this summer and fall, the soldiers, who range in rank from
private first class to staff sergeant, allegedly hung around with two drug
dealers who paid them each several thousand dollars in cash for their services.

But as the soldiers discovered Nov. 13 when they were arrested and jailed,
those supposed dealers were really undercover FBI agents. Even though it's
an exceptionally large drug scandal involving accusations against soldiers,
no drugs were seized. The reason for that, the defense lawyers contend, is
that the soldiers never actually possessed the drugs.

The drugs belonged to the government, they said. "Undercover FBI agents had
the drugs and gave them to the soldiers and asked the soldiers to carry the
drugs to different locations in return for some money," David Shannon, a
public defender representing one of the soldiers, said in a telephone
interview.

Some of the soldiers "only had an income of $1,250 a month," he said.
Waving lots of cash around, the agents tricked the soldiers into driving
the drugs, he said.

Shannon and the other defense lawyers are likely to use an entrapment
defense, arguing the government lured the soldiers into committing the
crimes. "Everybody's pleading not guilty," Shannon said.

The drugs in question were worth a fortune. The cocaine had a street value
of about $1.6 million and the marijuana, $1.7 million, said Ed Hall, an FBI
spokesman in Phoenix.

Charges against the soldiers range from conspiracy to possession with
intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana to accepting bribes from
undercover agents. Prison sentences can be up to life. The four charged
with bribery drove vans with government license plates, while the others
rode in the vans or in their personal cars, according to the complaint.

The soldiers were busted by the Southern Arizona Corruption Task Force, an
FBI-led, multi-agency investigative unit that works undercover to nail
public officials suspected of taking bribes from underworld types who
smuggle drugs and illegal immigrants up from Mexico, Hall said. In the past
few years, the task force has won bribery convictions of a Customs Service
inspector, a Border Patrol dispatcher, a local sheriff's deputy, a local
police officer, an Arizona corrections officer and a tribal officer from
the Tohono reservation near Tucson, he said. And now, it seems, the task
force is going after other folks in uniform soldiers. "During the course of
the crimes committed by the defendants, they were in their uniforms,"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra Hansen, who is prosecuting the soldiers,
said at their bond hearing Nov. 20 "The crimes were committed in part
because of their status as members of the United States military." Public
defender Shannon agreed - up to a point.

"It would be real easy for men who live on the income that these men live
on if the government wanted to set something up," Shannon said at the
hearing. "I want to assure you from personal knowledge that these men make
close to nothing in terms of what they should make. ... If the government
had the responsibility of starting this, I personally consider it
reprehensible." The following details about the soldiers come from the bond
hearing, where the soldiers and their lawyers were present, as well as the
criminal complaint Spc. Nkechi D. Anderson, 24, Headquarters Company, 306th
MI Battalion. Marijuana and bribery charges. The only female in the group,
she is three months pregnant and married to a sergeant.

Spc. Christopher M. Daniel, 20, Headquarters Company, Army Garrison.
Cocaine charge. He is an information systems operator who has been in the
Army for less than two years. He has no prior criminal record, said his
lawyer, Karen Ottenstein.

Staff Sgt. Rodney Eden, 35, Headquarters Company, 306th MI Battalion.
Marijuana charge. Eden, a supply sergeant, allegedly sold four
vehicle-identification decals to the "drug dealers." The decals provided
unlimited access to Fort Huachuca.

Sgt. Terance D. Glaze, 36, same unit as above. Marijuana and bribery
charges. Glaze allegedly provided the vans. He has served in the Army for
13 years and "has not a traffic ticket," said his lawyer, Dan Cooper. He
has two children and a wife who also is a sergeant.

Spc. Jerrold H. Hayles, 19, Headquarters Company, 111th MI Brigade. Cocaine
charge. Allegedly was paid $6,800 for transporting cocaine on two
occasions. Pfc. Marcelus A. Oliver, 21, Headquarters Company, Army
Garrison. Marijuana, cocaine and bribery charges. The complaint calls
Oliver a "crew boss," allegedly for his role as an organization man in
arranging the trips. He obtained fraudulent travel vouchers and received
nearly $12,000, it says.

Spc. Curtis Smith, 32, Headquarters Company, 306th MI Battalion. Marijuana
charges. He was due to leave the Army on Nov. 29. Officials aren't saying
how the 10 soldiers got caught up in the alleged drug-running scheme. But
at the bond hearing, Hansen said Smith initiated the conspiracy by
contacting a "source." He also "rounded up the other perpetrators," she
said. At the bond hearing, she called him a "flight risk" because his wife
is Mexican and they have a house in Mexico. But Smith's lawyer, Richard
Lougee, said the matter "was initiated in another manner" and deemed all
the soldiers "novices." Pfc. Glenn B. Smith II, 20, 18th Military Police
Detachment. Cocaine charge. "During the course of the investigation, he
dropped a dirty urine," testing positive for marijuana, and "is no longer a
military police officer," Hansen said.

Spc. Christopher W. Ward, 23, Headquarters Company, 306th MI Battalion.
Marijuana and bribery charges. The administrative specialist allegedly sold
six VIP passes to Fort Huachuca to agents for $1,000.

Pfc. Ronald Wylie, 19, Headquarters Company, Army Garrison. Cocaine charge.
He allegedly received $6,800 for transporting cocaine. His lawyer, Walter
Nash, described him in a telephone interview as "an extremely scared young
man who's never been arrested for anything in his life and doesn't
understand what's going on." Bond of $50,000 was set on each soldier; at
press time, none had posted it.