Drug Dealing Cops, the Norm?

(FBI) still image

Boston police officer pleads guilty to cocaine trafficking [boston globe piece]

Surveillance video taken by federal investigators shows officer Carlos Pizarro of the Boston Police Department at a meeting in Miami in last summer celebrating what he allegedly thought was the successful shipment of 100 kilograms of cocaine.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

One of three Boston police officers indicted last year on charges of protecting cocaine shipments for undercover FBI agents posing as drug dealers pleaded guilty today in federal court.

Carlos Pizarro, a 10-year veteran of the force who has been in custody since his July 2006 arrest, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 100 kilograms of cocaine and a second count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

"Why are you pleading guilty?" asked US District Judge William G. Young, after advising Pizarro that he could face up to 24 years in prison if convicted at trial. The government was offering to recommend no more than 14 years under a plea agreement filed with the court.

"Looking at the alternative, what we agreed upon sounds better,'' mumbled Pizarro, whose 38th birthday is today. Dressed in an orange prison suit, with leg irons shackled around his ankles, he sat in the witness box next to the judge during most of the hearing, nodding solemnly when asked if he had knowingly conspired with the others to guard a truck loaded with cocaine.

The agreement does not require Pizarro to testify against his former partners in the motorcycle unit, Roberto "Kiko" Pulido and Nelson Carrasquillo, who are slated to go to trial Nov. 5. However, it does require him to provide the government with a detailed account of his own involvement in any crimes.

"Obviously this is somebody who is telling the court he's ready to be held accountable for his conduct,'' said Pizarro's lawyer, R. Bradford Bailey. "Hopefully he'll be able to get on with his life down the line.''

The three officers were arrested in Miami last summer when they showed up for what they allegedly believed was a celebratory meeting with drug dealers who were supposed to pay them the final $35,000 of $50,000 in payments for guarding 100 kilograms of cocaine in June 2006 while it was being trucked from Western Massachusetts to a Jamaica Plain garage.

Posted by the Boston Globe City & Region Desk at 05:05 PM

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My post, with pictures, on Connecticut State Police Misconduct [click here]

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