DEPUTY REPORTEDLY PART OF RING THAT STOLE DRUGS

A Pima County sheriff's deputy accused of conspiracy was snared in a
federal probe of officers suspected of using their badges to steal cocaine
from drug dealers in California over seven years.

James Tracy Strickler, a 22-year department veteran, was one of four
officers who reportedly started plotting drug rip-offs in 1991, an
affidavit released yesterday in Los Angeles revealed. The alleged leader
was a former Tucson police officer convicted in October of federal drug
crimes that included the theft of 650 pounds of cocaine from an evidence
locker at the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement office in Riverside.

``In this case, we've alleged that there was an organized ring of narcotics
traffickers who happened to be wearing badges at the time they were dealing
drugs,'' said Thom Mrozek, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman in Los Angeles.

The investigation, conducted by the FBI, IRS and the California Bureau of
Narcotics Enforcement, is ongoing. Mrozek declined to comment on whether
additional officers are suspected.

Strickler's arrest was the first time a deputy has been accused of drug
charges in nearly two decades, said Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik,
who learned of the investigation last week.

``It happens when you have a bunch of human beings working in law
enforcement . . . who don't have the strength of character that's required
to maintain the integrity of the profession,'' Dupnik said.

Although the alleged ring operated off-duty in Central and Southern
California, court records show the members planned one heist in Tucson in
early 1993 that was never executed.

Dupnik said he had no information that Strickler distributed drugs in
Arizona or that any local investigations were compromised.

However, he said, ``We're taking a close look at . . . (local) home
invasions, particularly those where suspects identified themselves as
police officers.''

Strickler, who was once assigned to a DEA task force, has been placed on
unpaid administrative leave. ``We're in the process of separating him from
the agency,'' Dupnik said.

Agents accuse Strickler of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute
cocaine.

Yesterday the gaunt lawman appeared shackled in U.S. District Court in
Tucson. He was released after he promised to appear in Los Angeles for a
Jan. 7 hearing and posted a $115,000 bond - which included $25,000 from the
local Fraternal Order of Police.

An FOP representative said Strickler is being represented by a Phoenix law
firm, but attorneys did not return a telephone call seeking comment yesterday.

``I heard about it while I was driving. People called me,'' Nancy Strickler
said of her husband's arrest. She and her husband declined additional
comment to the media but talked quietly in court before leaving. The couple
have one young child.

Strickler's arrest as he arrived for work Wednesday at the foothills
substation stunned other deputies. The quiet 22-year veteran seemed an
unlikely target for a federal corruption probe launched by the largest
theft ever from a California law enforcement agency.

Although not apparently linked to the July 4, 1997, cocaine theft,
Strickler is implicated in two smaller heists by Michael Wilcox - a former
California Highway Patrol officer who has cooperated with investigators
since his recent indictment in the case.

At the center is Richard Wayne Parker, who quit the Tucson Police
Department in the late 1980s to become a special agent with the California
Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. Parker faces life in prison when he is
sentenced Jan. 19.

On Sunday agents arrested Parker's half-brother, George Michael Ruelas, in
Fresno. Ruelas worked the graveyard shift with Wilcox on the Highway Patrol
in South Los Angeles after a brief stint with the Pima County Sheriff's
Department.

Ruelas has been ordered held without bond and is awaiting transport to Los
Angeles, Mrozek said.

Wilcox said Parker and Ruelas approached him with the idea of establishing
a team that would steal narcotics and money from drug dealers. The men
conspired in actual and attempted thefts of narcotics and money in Tucson,
Huntington Beach, Malibu Hills, North Hollywood and Riverside, according to
the affidavit.

Wilcox told investigators Strickler took part in the first two robberies.

In 1991 the officers targeted a home in Huntington Beach where Parker knew
drugs were stored. They knocked on the door armed and wearing street
clothes and bullet-resistant vests.

If actual police arrived, Parker planned to report he was a case agent on a
narcotics investigation, Wilcox reported.

``Strickler hit the door hard enough to open it and Parker, Ruelas and
Strickler entered,'' the affidavit said. The men took a television set.

In late 1992 or 1993 the men targeted a home in Malibu Canyon where Parker
knew there would be marijuana and money, Wilcox reported. Wearing raid
uniforms and bullet-resistant vests, Strickler, Parker and Wilcox made the
occupants sign official-looking documents as they seized about $12,500 in
cash and a pound of marijuana.

One woman would tell investigators years later the men acted ``very
military-like'' and that one told her, ``We're not bad cops.''

After the men split the cash three ways, Strickler threw away the
marijuana, the affidavit said.

Wilcox said he, Parker, Strickler and Ruelas came to refer to themselves as
``Deguello'' - a term used by a Highway Patrol crowd that means ``no
quarter asked, no quarter given.'' Ruelas and Wilcox had the term tattooed
on their arms, and it's the name of Ruelas' 34-foot sailboat.

Strickler's name stops appearing in the affidavit after Wilcox described
how Parker got mad because the deputy wouldn't come out for a North
Hollywood operation.

Parker developed an elaborate plan to steal from the evidence locker about
six to nine months before the actual heist, Wilcox reported. Wilcox told
investigators he received about $550,000 in cash from the distribution of
cocaine stolen from that locker after splitting it three ways with Parker
and Ruelas.

Strickler was assigned to the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Trafficking
Interdiction Squads from 1983 to 1984. For the next five years he was
assigned to the DEA task force. From 1990 to 1992 he was assigned to the
Sheriff's Department's special investigations unit, which also does drug
investigations. Strickler also served on the SWAT team in the 1980s.

He was reassigned to the DEA task force from 1992 to 1994.

Dupnik said he suspended Strickler for three days, then moved him back to
patrol after ``a rather bizarre incident'' in which Strickler damaged the
interior of his undercover car with a knife.

Strickler has been a patrol deputy in the foothills ever since and has
received numerous letters of appreciation and commendation, a department
spokesman said.

Pima County sheriff's Sgt. Joe DeCormis said Strickler had worked for him
on the northside patrol. ``He's a hard worker and a great backup,'' he
said. ``He got along real good with everybody and never had any problems.''

Ruelas came to the Sheriff's Department from the California Highway Patrol
``with a pretty impressive background,'' Dupnik said. ``Apparently he had a
lot of experience working with gangs in California and impressed many of
our supervisors and managers with his talent, energy and skills,'' he said.

Ruelas also had an interest in boxing, the sheriff said, and promoted at
least one local fight.