FBI launches massive sting, finds group of officers getting paid to protect cartel drug trafficking
By Law Enforcement Today
DCDirtyLaundry.com
November 9, 2019
You’ve got to hand it to the FBI when it comes to crafting amazing sting operations.
Throughout the years, those kinds of operations have managed to get a myriad of criminals off the streets; but this time, the guilty parties identified by one of their recent stings may have you surprised.
A trio of South Carolina law enforcement officers got caught with their hand in the cartel-cookie jar, with two of the guilty individuals facing up to twenty years in prison.
Three former Orangeburg, South Carolina law enforcement officers, who were fooled by the FBI into thinking they were taking money from a fake drug-running Mexican cartel, have pleaded guilty to various criminal charges connected to the sting.
Evidence that was gathered by the FBI in putting together the case involved wiretaps, covert videos and an undercover agent posing as a member of a fake Mexican drug-trafficking cartel. According to assistant U.S. Attorney Will Lewis, who had described the crimes to Judge Joe Anderson on Tuesday, stated:
“They were engaged in a conspiracy to protect what they believed were drug traffickers.”
In the FBI’s sting, an agent posing as a member of a purported Mexican cartel who called himself “Jamie” told the officers that the cartel’s trucks would be traveling south through Orangeburg County on Interstate 26 with loads of money from selling drugs and then back again traveling north with loads of drugs, according to evidence in the case.
Per the discussed scheme with the undercover agents, the Orangeburg officers agreed to be paid to “guard” the fake truckloads of cash and drugs during the trucks’ layovers near an interstate exit.
Officers stood watch to keep the fake cartel trucks from harm, according to evidence in the case. This act of “guarding” would be executed while the Orangeburg officers were in full uniform while in their police vehicles.
The three who pleaded guilty this past Tuesday had varying charges associated with their level of participation in the collusion.
One of the guilty, Allan Hunter, 51, was a police officer in the town of Springfield in western Orangeburg County. He pleaded guilty to numerous charges connected with taking bribes to protect the fake cartel’s drug-trafficking operations. Hunter also plead guilty to using his position as a law officer to help undocumented immigrants illegally stay in the United States.
The Rest…HERE
