9 More Miami Police Officers May Be Involved in Drownings

As many as nine more Miami police officers may be implicated in the drownings of three suspected drug smugglers during the unloading of a cocaine shipment, it was reported Saturday.

Three Miami police officers have already been arrested on murder charges in the case.

“The witnesses have told us that seven to 12 men dressed in blue uniforms were at the homicide scene,” Metro-Dade police Lt. Larry Martin told the Miami News.

“We have every reason to believe that those participants were police officers, and if we have only arrested three, I don’t have to go into the mathematics with you to tell you that the others are still there,” he said.

Arrests Expected

Martin said Metro police have not told the city Police Department which officers are being investigated, but he said Metro police have a “very, very good idea” of the identities of several of the suspects.

He told the newspaper that the officers will remain on active duty “until enough evidence is gained to arrest those involved.”

Martin was not available for comment Saturday, and other Metro-Dade officers said they had no knowledge of the investigation.

Miami police officers Armando Estrada, Armando Garcia and Roman Rodriguez were charged last week with first-degree murder, cocaine trafficking and racketeering in the deaths last July of three suspected drug smugglers.

Adolfo Lopez-Yanes, Juan Garcia and Pedro Martinez drowned July 28 during what Metro police say was a drug rip-off by uniformed Miami police officers at the Jones Boatyard on the Miami River.

Metro police said the three dead men were among six people guarding a shipment of cocaine being unloaded from a fishing vessel, the Mary C.

Two of the three survivors have been charged in the case.