U.S. Soldiers Involved in Drug Smuggling Ring
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/US/story?id=1252876&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Washington, Oct. 26, 2005 — Several cases of corruption in the
military ranks have revealed a dangerous vulnerability in the
nation's security, ABC News has learned.

A U.S. army sergeant fighting the war on drugs in Colombia was
recently sentenced to six years in prison for using military
aircraft to smuggle cocaine into the United States.

In April, an Air National Guard pilot and a sergeant used a
C-5 Galaxy military transport plane to sneak nearly 300,000
ecstasy pills from Germany into New York.

In another case, three U.S. airmen were arrested in March for
stealing military-issue bulletproof vests from Moody Air Force Base
in Georgia and selling them to drug dealers for $100 dollars each.

Chip Burrus, the deputy assistant director of the FBI's criminal division,
says the corruption "has the potential to be a cancer that spreads in
individual units."

The FBI has launched a major initiative to find out whether other
members of the military and law enforcement are willing to engage
in similar behavior for profit.

Drugs, Bribes, and Military Equipment

Two recent government stings paint a disturbing picture.

"We simply cannot protect the American people if those who are
sworn to protect us join and conspire with our enemies,"
John Richter, U.S. Attorney for the Western District in Oklahoma,
said during a press conference.

Last week in Oklahoma, seven current and former U.S. soldiers;
most of them military police; admitted they received bribes of
$2,000 to $8,000 to smuggle cocaine.

"They abused everything that the military has worked for 220 years
to uphold, everything that law enforcement works to uphold," said
FBI special agent Chip Burrus. "They used their squad cars,
they used their Humvees, they used their military vehicles,
they used their passes, they used their uniforms."

In Operation Lively Green, FBI agents posed as drug dealers
and with $220,000 in cash, enticed Arizona National Guard
soldiers, an Arizona police officer, an immigrations agent,
and a federal prison guard to help them smuggle more than
1,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States.

In one case, the suspects met a plane on a remote airstrip
near Benson, Ariz., offloaded 60 kilograms of cocaine, and
drove it to a Phoenix resort hotel in their Army Humvees.

In another case, a U.S. immigration officer at the Mexican
border near Nogales, Ariz., waived through a truck he was
told was full of cocaine. He and 31 others have admitted
they were willing participants in the scheme. They also
implicated other officers.

The FBI says to expect more arrests.
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