HUNT IS ON FOR OTHER POLICE CORRUPTION

US Attorney Vows To Follow The Evidence

Boston police and the FBI will investigate whether a corruption case
reaches deeper and higher into the department than three officers
accused in an intricate network of schemes that included stealing the
identities of unsuspecting motorists, protecting truckloads of
cocaine, smuggling illegal immigrants, and guarding after-hours
parties where uniformed officers mingled with drug dealers and prostitutes.

"If there is sufficient evidence to charge any other individuals,
they will be charged," US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said yesterday
as he announced the three officers' arrests after a 2 1/2-year
undercover FBI investigation.

The explosive allegations have dealt another devastating blow to the
Police Department.

"This is not a good day for us," Acting Police Commissioner Albert
Goslin said at a press conference yesterday. "It is very hard for us
to see that some of our own have conducted themselves in such an
unprofessional and atrocious manner."

The alleged ringleader of the group, motorcycle officer Roberto
"Kiko" Pulido, was deeply involved in all the schemes, officials
said. He recruited two other officers -- one he met at the police
academy, the other a colleague -- into some schemes, officials said.

Pulido was paid $600 for protecting each of the illegal parties, held
monthly for the past five years, and, according to an affidavit filed
in support of the criminal complaint, said that he turned some of the
money over to one or more of his superior officers.

Pulido, whose cellphone and other conversations were recorded by
investigators, "unwittingly provided extensive information about the
illegal conduct of other Boston officers, other public officials, and
private citizens," wrote FBI Special Agent Michael J. Kreizenbeck in
the affidavit filed in US District Court in Boston.

Kenneth W. Kaiser, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston
office, said investigators "took great lengths to explore to see if
there were additional officers involved in this conspiracy." That
was, in part, why it took so long to bring the charges against Pulido
and the other two officers.

Sullivan, who vowed to "get to the bottom" of any allegations that
arise, said the ongoing investigation will focus on whether
additional officers should face criminal prosecution or disciplinary action.

Pulido, 41, of Hyde Park, a 10-year department veteran now assigned
to the motorcycle unit; Carlos A. Pizarro, 36, of Boston, an officer
for 10 years now on injured leave; and Nelson Carrasquillo, 35, of
Dorchester, a seven-year department veteran also now in the
motorcycle unit, were arrested Thursday night in Miami when they
showed up for what they allegedly believed was a celebratory meeting
with drug dealers who were supposed to pay them the final $35,000 of
$50,000 in payments for guarding 100 kilograms of cocaine last month
while it was being trucked from Western Massachusetts to a Jamaica
Plain garage.

Instead, they were arrested by undercover FBI agents posing as drug dealers.

The officers appeared briefly yesterday in federal court in Miami but
did not enter pleas, according to the Associated Press. A judge
ordered them held until a detention hearing Wednesday and set an Aug.
2 hearing on their extradition to Boston.

The three officers were charged with conspiracy to possess with
intent to distribute 100 kilograms of cocaine, but Sullivan said
additional charges are expected against them. If convicted on the
current charges, the officers could each face 30 years to life in
prison. The department suspended them with pay yesterday.

The allegations "reveal a sad and troubling tale of the extraordinary
breadth of criminal activity by Officer Pulido and the willingness of
other officers to join him in ignoring their duty to uphold the law
and instead to sell their badges to drug dealers," Sullivan said.

Thomas Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association,
declined to comment on the case. The union's lawyer, Thomas
Drechsler, also declined to comment on behalf of the three officers,
saying, "We simply have not been involved at this point."

Already, the case represents one of the biggest corruption scandals
to ever hit the department, which lost its commissioner July 1.
Kathleen M. O'Toole left the post to take a job in Ireland.

Goslin, who rose through the ranks of the department and was promoted
when O'Toole departed, traveled to district stations across the city
yesterday with several other top commanders to try to lift the
spirits of officers demoralized by the allegations.

"I firmly believe that 99 percent of the officers in this department
do their jobs faithfully, with integrity and professionalism," Goslin
said in a message posted on the department's website. "To serve as a
police officer in this department is a privilege, and anyone who
would throw it away by engaging in criminal activity is beneath our contempt."

The FBI launched its investigation of Pulido in November 2003 during
an investigation into an East Coast identity theft ring, and almost
immediately involved the Boston police anticorruption unit. Someone
involved in the ring was cooperating with the FBI and met with
Pulido, who said he was interested in buying gift cards that were
purchased with stolen identities. Pulido later obtained $148,000
worth of gift cards from the cooperating witness, according to the affidavit.

The witness said Pulido provided him with the names, addresses,
Social Security numbers, and dates of birth of motorists Pulido had
stopped. The affidavit said Pulido would also run license plates of
particularly fancy cars he spotted on the street. In all, Pulido
allegedly sold information belonging to more than 160 people for about $35,000.

Yesterday, Sullivan said that all of the information was turned over
by the witness to the FBI, so the identity theft ring was never able
to make use of it.

The affidavit also alleges that Pulido sold and used steroids that he
imported from a drug dealer living in Greece and that Pizarro had
been a heroin trafficker and at one time had been buying 500 to 1,000
bricks of heroin a month.

Pulido and Pizarro are also accused of insurance fraud in allegedly
asking the witness to sell two trucks to a chop shop, then reporting
them stolen.

Pulido was allegedly ruthless when it came to dealing with at least
two business partners. In March 2005, according to the affidavit, he
framed a former business partner by having a gun and heroin planted
in his car, then orchestrated the man's arrest. While the partner was
being held on the charges, Pulido allegedly enlisted another
associate to go to the partner's home and steal $40,000. The partner
told police he had been framed and, Sullivan said, the charges were dropped.

In a conversation secretly recorded by the FBI last year, Pulido
boasted that he was in the construction business with an illegal
immigrant and routinely laundered money for him, charging a 10
percent fee. During other conversations, Pulido said he had smuggled
foreigners into the United States for $5,000 a person, leaked
sensitive Police Department information, fixed tickets, trafficked in
stolen electronics, and aided loan-sharking, according to the affidavit.

Thursday's arrest is not the first time Pulido, who was in the MBTA
Transit Police and Municipal Police before becoming a Boston officer,
has been in trouble with the department.

In March 2000, Pulido agreed to accept a 45-day suspension after he
tested positive for an unspecified drug, department records show. He
was reinstated after serving the suspension.

A Boston police spokesman, Officer Michael McCarthy, said yesterday
that no other complaints against Pulido have been sustained by
Internal Affairs.

Pizarro has had two complaints sustained, but police did not provide
the specifics. Carrasquillo has never had a complaint sustained,
McCarthy said. The department said it could not provide
unsubstantiated complaints that had been filed against the officers.

Pulido was shot in March 2002 while patrolling alone in Jamaica
Plain. He was struck in the chest while wearing a bulletproof vest
and was not seriously injured. Pulido provided only a vague
description of a black male.

No arrest was made in the shooting despite a massive manhunt. A
department official with knowledge of the investigation said
officials were suspicious of the circumstances of the shooting at the
time, but could not disprove Pulido's account. Goslin declined to
comment on the case yesterday.

Donovan Slack of the Globe staff contributed to this report.