by Deb Cupples | The Justice Department tells us:
"Rommel I. Schroer, 33, a former sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, pleaded
guilty today to one count of conspiring to enrich himself by obtaining
cash bribes from people he believed to be narcotics traffickers in
return for his assistance, protection, and participation in the
activities of what he believed to be an illegal narcotics-trafficking
organization that distributed cocaine from Arizona to other locations
in the southwestern United States. In reality, the narcotics
traffickers were undercover FBI agents.
"According to court documents,
in order to protect the shipments of cocaine, Mr. Schroer and his
co-conspirators wore official uniforms, carried official forms of
identification, and used official vehicles, when necessary, to prevent
police stops, searches and seizures of the narcotics as they drove the
cocaine shipments through checkpoints manned by the U.S. Border Patrol,
the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Nevada law enforcement
officers."
Mr. Schroer was snared in an undercover investigation called Operation Lively Green, which began in 2001 and snagged 56 other defendants. No wonder the so-called "War on Drugs" has been failing for so long.
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