More Miami police arrested

Press, 30 December 1985, Page 8

More Miami police arrested

NZPA-Reuter Miami Three Miami policemen have been arrested on murder charges in connection with the drownings of three suspected drug smugglers during an alleged police “rip-off’ aimed at stealing cocaine with a street value of more than SUS2O million ($4O million).

The three face also cocaine trafficking charges along with a fourth policeman, Miami police said yesterday. The charges against the

four officers and two civilian accomplices were the latest to result from a wideranging investigation of drug-related corruption in the Miami Police Department. They followed the arrest on Friday of two former officers accused of stealing SUS2 million ($4 million) of cocaine from a 450 kg seizure last May. The police alleged that the newly-arrested policemen were involved when three men drowned after jumping into the Miami

River in July while attempting to escape from several men in police uniforms. The three suspected drug dealers were among six who were guarding a boat loaded with 300 to 400 kg of cocaine. “We’re alleging that (the policemens’) intent was to steal the contraband that was there in the boatyard,” said Police Commander Bill Johnson. The police said they did not know what the suspects had done with the cocaine.

Another investigation is continuing into the theft of SUSISO,OOO ($300,000) from the safe of the police department’s vice squad. A number of drug-related armed home invasions have been linked to the police and are also under investigation. Miami police officials conceded that the department’s reputation had been tarnished by the recent spate of scandals. “We are trying to clean our own house,” said a police spokesman, Reginald Roundtree.