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Posted by: kwflatbed

AP Photo/Olimpo Ramos

FBI agents arrested ten police officers accused of planting drugs as fraudulent evidence.


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Federal prosecutors Thursday filed criminal charges against 10 Puerto Rican police officers in an anti-narcotics unit, cracking down on police corruption on the heels of widespread outrage over a video showing an officer killing an unarmed civilian.
Nine officers and their lieutenant were accused of stashing cocaine, heroin and crack at their precinct in Mayaguez for the past 3-{ years so they could frame people in several of the city's low-income housing projects.
The Puerto Rico attorney general's office now faces the task of reviewing hundreds of drug cases to determine whether innocent people are serving time.
"These officers would keep the drugs in a box at the police station and pass the drugs back and forth between them, planting it in the pockets of the victims . . . also in their cars and their homes," U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said at a news conference. "They would get search warrants by giving false sworn testimony before judges."
Authorities said the police officer's motives for framing their targets were unknown.
The officers were arrested after being called in for a staff meeting and were taken away in handcuffs as residents outside cheered for joy and shouted, "Justice!" They face up to 10 years in prison.
The arrests came as people around the island decry what they say is a pattern of police abuse.
An officer investigating a car blocking traffic at a birthday party was caught on video earlier this month shooting an unarmed man to death in an incident the police superintendent dubbed an "execution." The officer is under arrest.
The American Civil Liberties Union this week asked the Puerto Rican Senate to investigate systemic abuses, saying the island's police department is "out of control."
The Puerto Rico police department is one of the largest in the United States - second only to New York - and battles one of the country's highest crime rates.
Police brass acknowledge that some 100 officers are currently under investigation for a variety of crimes, including using their patrol cars to escort cocaine shipments for local drug dealers.
The FBI raided the Mayaguez station last month, hauling away evidence in the first-ever federal search of a Puerto Rico police station.
"If they investigate deeper, they'll find even more," said Virgen Carrasquillo, a Mayaguez woman who had filed an internal affairs complaint against narcotics division officers.
Carrasquillo said she complained of constant harassment by the officers, who apparently were convinced drugs were being sold out of her apartment in the Candelaria housing complex.
Five days after her complaint, the unit showed up with a search warrant.
"They told my husband to sit down and they started coming out with bullets, weapons, crack and heroin - a lot of it," she said. "Most people around here won't talk about it . . . because if you speak out, they'll fabricate an even worse case. There are people serving 10-, 15- and 20-year sentences for cases these officers invented."
Carrasquillo's husband is now facing charges, but his was not among the cases cited in the indictments Thursday.
Puerto Rico's attorney general ordered the Mayaguez district attorney to make a list of all the pending criminal cases involving the arrested officers. People already convicted in cases they believe were fabricated will have to get their lawyers to file motions in court, said Deputy Attorney General Jose Delgado.
"Our duty as prosecutors is to review each case to see whether they were true or not," Delgado told The Miami Herald. "This is a monumental task. We are talking about hundreds, and I mean hundreds, of cases."
Thursday's indictments bring to 85 the number of Puerto Rico police who have faced federal charged in the past five years. But the numbers, the FBI's top boss here stressed, do not suggest systemic corruption.
"The people of Puerto Rico should trust in the 18,000 police who risk their lives every day to protect their communities," said Luis Fraticelli, special agent in charge of the FBI San Juan office.
Tenant activists at Candelaria housing project remain unconvinced.
"Those officers do all kinds of things against poor people," said activist Sandy Borras. "The government has always ignored people's complaints. So obviously, when the government of Puerto Rico doesn't follow up, sadly the U.S. government has to come do the Puerto Rican government's job."
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Story From: The Miami Herald

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Posted by: RPD931

About time they address this issue. And when are they gonna start paying taxes?

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