LAW ENFORCEMENT SNARES ITS OWN IN ARIZONA COCAINE STING

Pretending to be cocaine traffickers, undercover FBI agents in Arizona
snared 16 current and former law-enforcement officers and U.S. soldiers who
accepted more than $222,000 in bribes to help move the drugs past
checkpoints, the government said yesterday.

Those charged include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service
inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, seven
members of the Arizona Army National Guard, five members of the Arizona
Department of Corrections and a police officer, officials said.

All 16 agreed to plead guilty to being part of a bribery and corruption
conspiracy, said Noel Hillman, a Justice Department official. Each faces up
to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The defendants in the nearly 3 1/2-year-long sting agreed to cooperate
with an investigation expected to bring more arrests, Hillman said.