It was quite the scam; an unholy alliance between police and drug traffickers. First, the guys who were trafficking cocaine would tell the dirty cops about a competitor who was also trafficking cocaine in the same area. Then they would effectively set them up. This had the obvious benefit of eliminating their drug trafficking competition but it also had another far more sinister and immediately profitable benefit . . . free cocaine.
The Houston cops who were in on the rip-off would then do one of two things. They would either remove large quantities of cocaine from the packages by placing large objects in the middle of the bundles so that all that was visible was cocaine or they would simply remove 98% of the cocaine and fill the package up with 2% cocaine cut with other substances. Then the cocaine that the cops had removed from the bundles of drugs was given to the traffickers to sell. The original bundles were then turned into evidence.
This criminal scheme netted large quantities of cocaine for the traffickers to sell. The profits were split between the dealers and their dirty cop accomplices.
If true, the notion that the people we trust to ensure our safety and enforce our laws could betray our trust so thoroughly is disgraceful. Moreover, the question this story begs is how anyone can rely on any testimony or evidence that those dirty cops ever produced? As a criminal defense attorney, I sincerely hope that the Houston prosecutor’s office is reviewing every case those cops ever touched. This public disgrace will keep a lot of criminal defense lawyers busy for an awfully long time.
