5 Crooked Drug War Cops Who Outraged Us Last Week -- Sticky Fingered Narc Edition

By Phillip Smith / AlterNet

Enforcing the drug laws leads to constant temptation for the men and women of law enforcement, and some are not strong enough to resist it. Week in, week out and year in, year out, there's a constant cavalcade of crooked and corrupt cops who seem to have lost their moral compass in the ethically ambigous arena of policing drug prohibition. Here's this week's bad apples:

1. In Washington, DC, an FBI agent was arrested last Friday on charges he stole hundreds of grams of heroin seized in drug raids, keeping it in his car, and occasionally using it. Matthew Lowry, 33, will plead guilty to 64 counts of obstruction of justice, heroin possession, and conversion of property, his attorney said. Lowry's larceny caused federal prosecutors to have to drop charges against at least 28 defendants in drug cases and to notify 150 more than Lowry had been part of their investigations.

2. In South Salt Lake, Utah, a Unified police detective was arrested last Friday on charges he stole more than $8,500 in drug buy money from the department. Sgt. Kenneth Calhoun, 49, went down after an audit earlier this year revealed discrepancies in the drug buy funds. The audit identified at least 46 cases where Calhoun submitted "chits" for drug buy funds, but never turned in any drugs. He is charged with misuse of public money and official misconduct. The 19-year department veteran is now on administrative leave.

3. In Memphis, four Shelby County corrections deputies were arrested Monday on charges they conspired to smuggle Oxycontin into the county jail. The four went down in a sting after the FBI's Tarnished Badge Task Force found "cooperating" inmates who agreed to ask them to smuggle the drugs into the jail. The sting included meetings between the jailers and people named by the inmates as intermediaries where fake Oxycontin pills and cash were given to them. The jailers then smuggled the pills into the jail, where the cooperating inmates turned them in to authorities. All four are now looking at up to 20 years in federal prison.

4. In San Francisco, a former San Francisco police undercover officer was sentenced last Wednesday to three years and three months in prison for stealing money and belongings from people during drug searches. Edmond Robles, 47, a 22-year veteran of the force, had been convicted in February of five counts -- conspiracy to violate civil rights, two counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit theft from a federally funded program (namely, the Police Department) and theft. Robles is the third San Francisco police officer to go down in the case, which targeted residents of the city's SRO hotels.

5. In Houston, a former Houston police officer was sentenced last Friday to more than five years in federal prison for agreeing to use his law enforcement position to provide security for a 10-kilogram drug deal. He agreed to provide security for a $2,500 payment. He had been indicted on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine.

This article produced in partnership with the Drug War Chronicle.