Officers Plead Guilty to Corruption [Miami]

MIAMI (AP) Three former police officers and a retired Customs inspector
pleaded guilty Tuesday to taking bribes to protect drug shipments.

Edwin Perez Martinez, 51, was a senior Customs inspector in Miami. Gilberto
Hernandez, 31, Thomas Murphy, 34 and John Salazar, 37, were drug enforcement
officers for the Hallandale Police Department.

All three pleaded guilty to extortion conspiracy, which carries up to five
years in prison. Perez and Hernandez also pleaded guilty to robbery and
extortion, while Murphy and Salazar pleaded to attempted extortion. Each
count carries up to 20 years. The men face sentencing Aug. 21

Prosecutors said the men met last September with undercover agents posing as
drug traffickers. The officers agreed to take $1.6 million in exchange for
Customs clearance and protection for a shipment of cocaine.

The plane arrived at Tamiami Airport, west of Miami, a week later with about
1,300 pounds of bogus cocaine and Perez cleared it without inspecting it,
prosecutors said. Hernandez then provided police escort for the delivery of
the fake drugs.

A month later, the men stole $44,000 in cash from a home they thought
belonged to the importers of the bogus drugs.

Prosecutors said the men also stole cocaine hidden in a shipment of fish at
Miami International Airport, altered Customs computer records to hide it, and
pocketed $650,000 from its sale.