BOSTON POLICE OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY IN DRUG TRAFFICKING CASE

3d Man's Corruption Trial To Start Today In US Court

Nelson Carrasquillo faces 10 years to life in federal prison.

Moments after Nelson Carrasquillo became the second Boston police
officer to plead guilty to participating in a drug trafficking
scheme, his 15-year-old son stood in the federal courthouse yesterday
with tears in his eyes and his father's leather belt dangling from his neck.

"I'm proud of him . . . the choices that he made," said Nelson
Carrasquillo Jr., who took his father's belt and olive suit jacket
when deputy US marshals led the fired police officer to jail.

Carrasquillo, 36, of Dorchester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy with
intent to distribute cocaine and heroin and two counts of attempted
aiding and abetting the scheme as he and the alleged ringleader, his
former partner Roberto "Kiko" Pulido, were about to face trial
together yesterday.

Carrasquillo faces 10 years to life in federal prison when he is
sentenced Feb. 5.

Two months ago, a third officer, Carlos A. Pizarro, pleaded guilty to
cocaine charges for his role in the scheme. Authorities said the
three officers protected shipments of cocaine for purported drug
dealers who turned out to be undercover FBI agents.

Carrasquillo's wife, Sandra Marrero, said he pleaded guilty to avoid
putting his family through the strain of a trial.

"He's a real man, a better man than [authorities] want to make him
look like," she said.

"I'm as proud of him today as I was the day he graduated from the
[police] academy."

Opening arguments are scheduled for today before US District Judge
William G. Young in the trial of Pulido, the remaining defendant in
what some have described as the worst Boston police corruption
scandal in a decade.

"He's the last man standing," said Pulido's lawyer, Rudolph F.
Miller, who said his client is a victim of government entrapment.

Prosecutors declined to comment.

The three Boston police officers were arrested in Miami in July 2006
after they were accused of protecting 100 kilograms of cocaine that
was trucked to Boston from Western Massachusetts the month before.
FBI agents posing as drug dealers helped arrange the deal that
involved government-seized cocaine.

An FBI affidavit filed in the case also accused Pulido of being
involved in a network of schemes that included stealing the
identities of motorists and guarding after-hours parties where
uniformed officers mingled with drug dealers and prostitutes.

He was not charged in those matters.

Before yesterday's plea, Carrasquillo and his legal team spent
considerable time weighing prosecutors' case against him, poring over
6,000 pages of evidence from the government and listening to more
than 1,000 hours of conversations secretly recorded by federal
authorities, said Stephen Neyman, one of his lawyers.

But Carrasquillo did not make his final decision about pleading
guilty until the weekend, Neyman said.

He is "absolutely not cooperating with the government" and will not
testify against Pulido, said Neyman, who contends that the
government, not his client, initiated the scheme to ship cocaine.

Pizarro, however, is a potential witness for the government, Miller
said. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12.

Carrasquillo's house in Dorchester was targeted by suspected
arsonists three times last year. A police spokeswoman said at the
time that it was unclear whether the fires were related to the
federal case. No arrests were made, Neyman said.

Carrasquillo joined the police force eight years ago and was honored
in 2004 for helping nab three suspects after he heard shots fired
inside a garage at the New England Medical Center.

But a grainy black-and-white videotape played in a packed courtroom
last year showed another side of him. In the tape produced by
undercover agents, Carrasquillo, in a hotel in Coral Gables, Fla.,
promised an undercover FBI agent that he and the other police
officers would maintain a low profile and keep the operation small.

"My thing is, I'd rather keep it like this," he said on the tape. "I
don't want to bring too many people in, too many people knowing our
business. Like you said, we run a chance of someone turning into Al Capone."