9 New Orleans Officers Indicted on Drug, Gun Charges

Nine New Orleans police officers were indicted Wednesday on federal weapons and drug charges, and a federal prosecutor called corruption in the police department “rampant and systemic.”

The nine officers are alleged to have taken part in and protected a complex drug-trafficking ring--actually part of an FBI sting--and accepted more than $97,000 in bribes, according to the grand jury indictment.

As many as 20 other officers could have been implicated in the drug ring if the yearlong FBI investigation had not been cut short to protect the safety of undercover agents, U.S. Atty. Eddie Jordan said.

“We recognized that because we were dealing with police officers as suspects we were going to have to carefully plan and execute each stage of the operation,” FBI agent Neil Gallagher said.

“The entire operation was conducted under a heavy blanket of tight security,” he said.

Over the last several years, more than 30 other New Orleans officers have been arrested and convicted for such crimes as bank robbery, bribery, theft and sexual offenses.

“I would describe corruption in the New Orleans Police Department to be pervasive, rampant and systemic,” Jordan said.

New Orleans Supt. of Police Richard Pennington, who took over in September after leaving the Washington, D.C., Police Department, said he is continuing the investigation and more charges could be filed.

Mayor Marc Morial said he wants to see a a complete change in the way the Police Department’s internal affairs division operates.

“We are going to be on a holy war. We are going to clean this department up,” Morial said.

The FBI set up an undercover network of agents who acted as cocaine couriers and drug dealers. The agents contacted police officers who then provided security for the drug ring, often while in uniform and on duty.

The officers protected the storage and movement of more than 130 kilograms of cocaine kept in a New Orleans warehouse, the grand jury indictment alleged.