FIFTEEN ILLINOIS OFFICERS CHARGED IN FBI DRUG STING

Sold 'Guns And Badges'

FBI agents posed as drug dealers in a year-long sting that targetted
alleged corrupt law enforcement officers who "sold their guns and
badges" to criminals.

In one instance, two sheriff's officers helped count what they thought
were bags of cocaine in an airplane, loaded the "80 kilograms of
drugs" into duffel bags and then carried it to the car of the "dealer."

"When drug dealers deal drugs, they ought to be afraid of the police
- -- not turn to them for help," said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U. S.
attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Fifteen Illinois law enforcement officers have been charged on counts
that included accepting cash in exchange for providing armed
protection for drug dealing operations in south suburban Chicago.

Mr. Fitzgerald described the charges as "particularly
shocking."

"Ideally, it should be hard to find one corrupt officer," Mr.
Fitzgerald said in a written statement, "and it should never be easy
to find 15 who allegedly used their guns and badges to protect people
they believed were dealing drugs, instead of arresting them."

The defendants were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute
cocaine and/or heroin in drug-dealing operations that played out in
parking lots at suburban shopping centres and hotels. They include 10
Cook County sheriff's correctional officers, two of whom are on active
duty with the National Guard in Afghanistan; four officers with the
suburban Harvey Police Department; and one Chicago police officer. Two
other men who were not affiliated with the law enforcement agencies
were charged as well.

According to the U. S. attorney's office, two of those charged,
Ahyetoro A. Taylor and Raphael Manuel, provided protection in May for
a man who they believed was brokering large-scale drug transactions
but was an undercover FBI agent.

Officials said Mr. Taylor and Mr. Manuel boarded a small aircraft at
DuPage Airport, piloted by two other undercover agents, and began
counting packages stuffed inside four duffel bags that were said to be
carrying a total of 80 kilograms of cocaine.

The officers then helped the undercover agent remove the duffel bags
from the plane and carry them through the airport to the agent's car,
then watched in a nearby parking lot as another undercover agent took
the bags and drove away, the U. S. attorney's office said.

Officials said the agent posing as the drug broker then paid Mr.
Taylor and Mr. Manuel US$4,000 each. Officials said the agent paid a
total of US$44,000 to 16 of the defendants.

The sting also revealed police officers protecting a high-stakes poker
game, providing security for the transportation of large amounts of
cash and selling powder cocaine, according to Robert D. Grant, special
agent in charge of the Chicago office of the FBI.

"The almost systemic corruption that this investigation uncovered is
quite troubling, especially given that most of those charged are sworn
law enforcement officers," said Mr. Grant in a written statement.

"One would have hoped that the many public corruption investigations
that have previously been announced would have served to deter this
type of conduct. Apparently, this is not the case."

New York Times News Service, with files from National Post