FORMER DRUG AGENT SENTENCED TO LIFE

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A former state anti-narcotics agent convicted of
running a multi-state drug distribution network was sentenced to life
in prison Wednesday and fined $16 million.

Lawyers for Richard Wayne Parker, 44, told U.S. District Judge
Christina Snyder that their client does not have the money to pay the
fine and will appeal his conviction.

The former California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement officer was
convicted of stealing 650 pounds of cocaine from an evidence locker in
1997 and selling it in a cocaine operation that stretched from
Honolulu to Detroit.

Parker was convicted in a second trial after his first jury
deadlocked.

His lawyer, Richard Hamar, said after the sentencing that he would
argue to an appeals court that Parker was placed in double jeopardy
because the first jury was not ordered to continue its deliberations
further before a mistrial was declared.

Parker's sentence was mandated under federal law, as was the
extraordinarily large fine -- $4 million on each of four counts.

After Parker was convicted, authorities arrested his half-brother,
former California Highway Patrol officer George Michael Ruelas, and
Parker's former partner, Michael Wilcox, on charges of participating
in the drug ring. Both were charged and their cases are pending.