TROOPER FACES DRUG CHARGES

2 Mexican brothers also accused in cocaine, money-laundering case

SAN ANTONIO - Federal prosecutors announced an indictment Friday accusing a
Texas state trooper of corruption in a drug-trafficking and
money-laundering operation.

Warren Bolden, 32, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper since 1994,
and two Mexican brothers related to the head of a border-based
cocaine-smuggling organization were charged in federal court in Austin with
multiple drug and money-laundering charges.

Trooper Bolden is the first DPS officer accused of drug charges in four years.

He was charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine,
cocaine possession, money laundering, illegally exporting currency and
possession of anabolic steroids. He was released Friday on a $50,000 bond.

Charged with the state trooper were brothers Federico Partida-Ramos, 35,
and Tomas Partida-Ramos, 45, of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. They were also
charged with drug conspiracy, possession and money laundering.

The elder Mr. Partida-Ramos was also charged with illegal re-entry after
deportation. The brothers were being held without bail in the Travis County
Jail.

"This caps a two-year investigation into the Pablo Partida organization,
which operates out of Nuevo Laredo and is responsible for distributing
significant quantities of cocaine and crack cocaine in the Austin area,"
said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Murphy, the No. 2 prosecutor for the San
Antonio-based U.S. Western District of Texas.

The charges against the trooper, who was suspended with pay after his
arrest Feb. 8, is a "rare but sad event," DPS spokeswoman Sherry Green
said.

"We have about 3,000 commissioned law enforcement officers working at DPS,"
Ms. Green said. "When you get that many people, somebody is going to make a
mistake."

Ms. Green said that though specific numbers aren't available, the instances
of DPS officers charged with state or federal crimes are few.

The last DPS officer arrested on federal charges was Sgt. Robert Nesteroff,
a veteran state narcotics officer. He was charged, along with U.S. Customs
Special Agent Richard Cardwell, by a prosecutor in South Florida with
helping a Florida cocaine trafficker avoid prosecution.

Both men were acquitted by a Houston jury in 1995. Top DPS officials said
at the time that the trial supported their contention that Sgt. Nesteroff
was a scapegoat for federal authorities in Florida because of a 1988
undercover drug operation that turned sour.

The current case underscores how deeply drugs and drug money have
infiltrated all levels of society, said Dr. Tony Zavaletta, dean of liberal
arts at the University of Texas at Brownsville.

"Drug money is very corrosive, not only by its illegality but by its sheer
volume," Dr. Zavaletta said. "It corrupts, and it corrupts completely.
Policemen, because they walk between two worlds of the criminal and
law-abiding society, have no more immunity than anyone else."

Trooper Bolden, a native of Killeen, worked for the state adult probation
office in Austin after his graduation from the University of Texas in 1989.

He graduated from the DPS academy in 1994 and was stationed as a state
trooper out of the DPS' Austin office since July 1995.

There were no complaints or disciplinary actions in his record, DPS
officials said.

According to the indictment, Trooper Bolden allegedly conspired with the
Partida-Ramos brothers from Aug. 1, 1996, to Jan. 9, 1998, to carry
proceeds of cocaine and crack sales totaling $210,000 to Pablo Partida in
Nuevo Laredo. He is also charged with selling firearms and ammunition to
Federico Partida-Ramos.

"We charge in the indictment that Bolden intentionally failed to file
currency documents when he transported drug proceeds from Austin to Nuevo
Laredo on two occasions in late 1997 and early 1998," Mr. Murphy said. "He
did so in his personal automobile. There is no indication he committed any
acts while in uniform or while on duty."

The indictment also alleges that Trooper Bolden conspired with Tomas
Partida-Ramos from December 1997 to Jan. 9 to carry cocaine and crack
cocaine from Nuevo Laredo to Austin.

At the time of Trooper Bolden's arrest, Drug Enforcement Administration
agents found 15 vials of anabolic steroids in his Austin apartment, which
authorities said he apparently used as part of a body-building regimen.

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)