28 Puerto Rico Police Caught in Drug Sting

In one of the biggest police corruption busts in U.S. history, 28 state police officers in Puerto Rico were arrested Tuesday on drug-running charges after a yearlong undercover sting. Another officer was still being sought.

On a dozen drug runs, the Puerto Rican officers allegedly accepted nearly $200,000 in cash for protecting cocaine dealers and ensuring that their deliveries were safely executed at spots throughout the island.

But the supposed drug dealers were undercover FBI agents who had initiated a sting last year after authorities got wind of possible corruption in a related drug probe, said Marlene M. Hunter, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Puerto Rico office.

The officers “believed there was a drug load that needed to be transported and that . . . there was a considerable risk the load could be stopped by police or by another band of competing drug dealers. And it was their job to see that this didn’t happen,” she said.

The officers, including a husband-and-wife team, used their badges, guns and police cars to ensure that the cocaine drops were made, according to the allegations in a federal grand jury indictment. And they also allegedly offered the “dealers” advice on how to avoid the tracing of fingerprints at the crime scenes.

Some officers even began recruiting colleagues to join the drug-running operation, authorities said. Officers allegedly received between $3,000 and $28,000 for their help in protecting the cocaine shipments.

Authorities arrested all but one of the 29 officers Tuesday morning. A former police officer, a corrections officer and a police department employee were also indicted and apprehended.

The defendants face 10 years to life in prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine and of carrying a firearm in the course of the drug-trafficking.

Police corruption scandals in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere have yielded more serious charges and greater numbers of officers implicated over time. But FBI officials in Washington said the 29 officers indicted in Puerto Rico marked the largest police corruption bust based on the number of officers involved.

State police officials in Puerto Rico, who cooperated in the FBI’s investigation, condemned the actions of those employees implicated in the sting.

“They have dishonored the uniforms which 99% of the good officers in our police force wear with so much honor,” said State Police Chief Pierre E. Vivoni.

The state police force in Puerto Rico, which numbers nearly 19,000, has had sporadic problems with corruption dating back to the 1980s.

Hunter said the problem may stem partly from the low wages paid to Puerto Rican officers--salaries start around $17,000--and easy access to the Colombian cocaine trade.