This Week’s Corrupt Cops Stories (2012.10.09)

Some Michigan narcs were up to no good, a New Mexico probation officer gets caught carrying pounds of weed, a New York City prison guard gets caught peddling pot and placebos (!) to prisoners, and a Florida cop gets caught stealing weed to use as probable cause for a search warrant. Just another week in the drug war. Let’s get to it:

In Eastpointe, Michigan, one Eastpointe officer has resigned and another faces a departmental hearing amidst allegations that they mishandled drugs used in investigations and sold seized items on Craigslist. The two as yet unidentified officers were both members of the department’s drug enforcement unit. They are accused of using drugs for street buys without properly logging and accounting for them. They are also accused of selling seized items, including chrome wheels and flat-screen TVs on Craigslist, possibly in exchange for drugs. The case has been turned over to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, where a decision on any potential criminal charges is not expected until next week at the earliest.

In Alamogordo, New Mexico, a state juvenile probation officer was arrested September 26 at a US Customs and Border Protection checkpoint with 9.7 pounds of marijuana in his vehicle. Saul Velasco, 37, is charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Velasco was on duty and driving a state vehicle when arrested. There were 10 bundles of weed in his car, for which he allegedly paid $2,500 to a man he met at a restaurant near El Paso, Texas. He was scheduled for a preliminary hiring last Friday, but we have no word on how that went.

In New York City, a Rikers Island prison guard was arrested last Thursday on charged he took bribes and provided marijuana and placebo drugs to inmates. Lashar Williams, 38, a 13-year Department of Corrections veteran, went down after the department heard that he brought $200 worth of weed into the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers in March. He was then found to have provided one inmate with two suboxone strips for $100 and, on a separate occasion that same month, he provided another inmate with what was supposed to be $700 worth of Oxycontin, but was actually placebos. He has now been indicted on 27 counts, including bribe receiving in the third degree, promoting prison contraband in the first degree, criminal possession and sale of a controlled substance in the fifth degree and receiving reward for official misconduct in the second degree. He has now been suspended with pay.

In Pensacola, Florida, a former Crestview police officer was arrested last Friday for stealing marijuana from a SWAT locker and using it to falsely establish probable cause for a search warrant. Timothy White, 26, falsely claimed the pot came from a local residence and used that claim to secure a search warrant. That warrant was not executed, but White was charged with one count of fabricating evidence and booked into the Okaloosa County Jail.

Article republished from Stop the Drug War under Creative Commons Licensing