PROSECUTORS SAY TWO DETECTIVES WERE COURIERS FOR DRUG RING

Two decorated New York City police detectives and a retired officer were
charged yesterday with ferrying cocaine, heroin and drug money across the
country for a Washington Heights drug lord, the authorities said.

The arrests were part of a sweep in which the police and the F.B.I. arrested
13 people, including the drug lord himself, said William J. Muller, the
spokesman for the United States attorney's office in Brooklyn.

For three years, court papers say, the detectives, Willie Parson and Steven
Fuller, and the retired officer, Philip Moog, drove shipments of heroin and
cocaine as far as Detroit and Baltimore for the dealer, Francisco Ubejo, and
brought him back cash.

The assistant United States attorney handling the case, Stuart M. Altman,
said that in his five years with the office he had not seen police officers
more deeply involved in drug trafficking. All three men face a maximum of
life in prison on drug conspiracy charges.

Mr. Ubejo, who operated out of a store called Illusion Fashions on 158th
Street in Washington Heights, used policemen as couriers because they could
avoid being searched if pulled over, Mr. Muller said.

Mr. Ubejo paid the detectives and the retired officer up to $3,000 for
delivering a kilogram of heroin and $700 for a kilogram of cocaine, court
papers state. Over three years, according to the criminal complaint, the men
distributed about 50 kilograms of heroin and 100 of cocaine.

Both detectives graduated from the police academy in 1982 and worked out of
the Manhattan North patrol borough on West 100th Street. Detective Parson,
43, worked in the homicide unit, and Detective Fuller, also 43, worked in
warrants.

The detectives were arrested outside their homes yesterday, Mr. Altman said.
Mr. Moog, 55, who retired three years ago, was arrested Tuesday at his home
near Scranton, Pa.

The detectives denied the charges through their lawyers.

According to the complaint, a cooperating witness gave Detective Fuller two
kilograms of what was presented as cocaine, which the detective was
videotaped delivering to an undercover F.B.I. agent in Baltimore in exchange
for cash.

Detective Parsons was arrested based on phone records showing frequent calls
between him and Mr. Ubejo, discussions among other conspirators in which he
was mentioned, and tips, Mr. Altman said.

A lawyer for Detective Parsons, John Jacobs, told reporters the charges were
based on the word of a single witness.

Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik called the charges disheartening, but
added, "this case demonstrates that when it comes to fighting the illegal
drug trade, the New York law enforcement community makes no exceptions."