MORE OFFICERS FACE INDICTMENT IN PROBE

Two Chicago police officers and a Cook County sheriff's correctional
officer are expected to be indicted as early as next week in the
widening federal probe of a drug ring allegedly run by a rogue cop.

The correctional officer is a cousin of former Chicago police officer
Joseph Miedzianowski, who is accused of masterminding a
Miami-to-Chicago drug pipeline from 1988 through his arrest in
December 1998.

The correctional officer was stripped of his badge and gun on Thursday
pending an investigation, said Bill Cunningham, spokesman for the
sheriff's office. The officer, a firearms instructor, was transferred
to a less sensitive assignment in a minimum security wing of Cook
County Jail, Cunningham said.

A drug courier cooperating with prosecutors said she sent cocaine to
the correctional officer's home, federal court records show. He and
two unidentified Chicago police officers are expected to be charged
soon, a law enforcement source said Thursday.

Nelson Padilla, 35, who pleaded guilty Tuesday in state court to the
1995 murder of Roberto Detres, on Thursday became the 11th defendant
to cut a deal with prosecutors in the federal drug conspiracy case.

"I robbed, extorted and sold drugs with Joseph Miedzianowski and
others," Padilla told U.S. District Judge Blanche M. Manning.

Prosecutors agreed to recommend a lighter sentence for Padilla in
exchange for testimony against Miedzianowski and his two remaining
co-defendants.

Padilla said he teamed with Miedzianowski and others to rip off drug
dealers, and was part of a major Miami-to-Chicago drug distribution
network. Miedzianowski helped him evade police for Detres' murder, he
claimed.

In a conversation recorded by federal authorities, the corrections
officer once suggested to Miedzianowski that they shake down more drug
dealers, saying, "I think it's time to fly the Jolly Roger," referring
to the skull-and-crossbones flag that pirates used, a prosecutor said.

"You have a murderer and a congenital liar making allegations against
a highly decorated police officer," Miedzianowski lawyer Ralph Meczyk
responded.