4TH OFFICER ARRESTED IN PROBE OF DRUG THEFT

Crime: The FBI says an Arizona deputy is part of a ring of officers who
plotted to break into homes in the Los Angeles area to steal drugs and
money.

A federal probe into the theft of 650 pounds of cocaine from the state
Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement's Riverside office has led to Arizona and the
arrest of a fourth law enforcement officer, authorities said Thursday. James
Strickler, a Pima County (Tucson) sheriff's deputy, was arrested while on
duty and charged with conspiring to distribute illegal drugs. He was freed
on bail pending a Jan. 7 court hearing in Los Angeles.

Strickler was part of a rogue team of officers who plotted to break into
homes in Malibu Canyon, North Hollywood and Huntington Beach to steal drugs
and money, according to an affidavit filed Thursday in
connection with his arrest.

FBI sources said Strickler was a friend of Richard Wayne Parker, a state
narcotics agent convicted in October of staging the Riverside theft, the
largest ever from a California police agency.

Parker worked for the Pima County Sheriff's Department before he moved to
California in the 1980s and joined the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

Although Strickler was not accused of taking part in the Riverside theft,
the government affidavit said he was one of four officers who teamed up in
1991 to burglarize the homes of suspected dealers.

Parker, 44, of San Juan Capistrano, was the ringleader, the affidavit said.
The other alleged members were Parker's half-brother, California Highway
Patrol Officer George Michael Ruelas, 40, who was arrested earlier this week
in the Riverside theft, and Ruelas' former CHP partner, Michael Wilcox, 40,
of Fresno.

Wilcox implicated the others and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors after
his indictment last month on money laundering charges.

According to the affidavit, Wilcox told investigators that the plan called
for Parker to obtain the names and addresses of "targets" from intelligence
files at the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

Armed and wearing bullet-resistant vests, the foursome reportedly would
break into houses where drugs were stored and, if someone was home, pretend
to be on a police raid.

The first break-in occurred in Huntington Beach and yielded nothing more
than a television set, according to the affidavit.

In the second rogue operation, Wilcox said, they confronted a man and a
woman in a Malibu Canyon home. They allegedly seized a pound of marijuana
and about $12,000 in cash, and Parker had the couple sign official-looking
papers acknowledging the "seizure."

The men later divided the take, Wilcox said.

In 1993, he said, the four scouted a possible target in the Tucson area, but
decided to call off the operation for reasons not explained in the
affidavit.

A subsequent raid targeted a house in North Hollywood, according to the
affidavit. What, if anything, was taken was not indicated. However, Wilcox
was quoted as saying that Parker was upset because Strickler would not come
to North Hollywood to take part in the raid.

Nor did Strickler participate in the next operation, the July 4, 1997,
cocaine theft at the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement office in Riverside,
where Parker was assigned.

The case remained unsolved until a year later when Parker was arrested by
FBI agents as a result of an unrelated drug probe. The agents tailed Monica
Pitto, a Manhattan Beach drug dealer, from her home to a Pasadena parking
structure where she gave a package containing $47,000 to Parker. Both were
arrested at the scene.

Pitto confessed that she was peddling drugs for Parker. A search of his
home, garage and cars turned up $599,000 in cash.

With Parker's arrest, FBI agents turned their attention to the Riverside
theft, but it was not until after Parker's conviction in October that they
homed in on Ruelas, Wilcox and Strickler.