TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - FBI agents posing as cocaine traffickers nabbed 16 current and former law enforcement officers and U.S. soldiers who had accepted more than $222,000 in bribes to help move drugs past checkpoints, the government said. The outcome of the nearly 3 1/2-year-long sting operation was announced Thursday by the Justice Department.
Those charged include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, seven members of the Arizona Army National Guard, five members of the Arizona Department of Corrections and a police officer, officials said.
All agreed to plead guilty to being part of a bribery and corruption conspiracy, said Noel Hillman, a Justice Department official.
Eleven defendants entered guilty pleas Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court, acknowledging they used their positions as uniformed public figures to assist in transporting cocaine for people they believed to be drug traffickers.
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