Pubdate: Fri, 13 Sep 2002
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Copyright: 2002 San Antonio Express-News
Contact:  http://www.mysanantonio.com/expressnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384
Author: Maro Robbins, San Antonio Express-News

LAST S.A. COP IN DRUG STING IS SENTENCED

The last of nine police officers who agreed to guard cocaine shipments was 
sentenced Thursday to almost three years in prison.

Thursday's sentencing of former San Antonio Police Officer Lawrence Bustos 
closed the door on what has been described as a sordid episode of local 
law-enforcement.

Bustos, pleading for leniency from U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado, 
said he rued the day he allowed a fellow officer to recruit him into a 
conspiracy among six officers and a police sergeant's uncle.

He used the words "stupidity" and "paralyzed with grief" as he recalled 
Sept. 21, 2000, the day he showed up in his Air Force Reserves uniform to 
escorta car he was told carried 75 kilograms of cocaine.

"I would gladly give all my earthly possessions to live that day again 
differently," the married father of four said.

By agreeing to shepherd the car, Bustos stumbled into an FBI sting. Bustos 
confessed after his March 2001 arrest.

Prado sentenced Bustos, 38, to 34 months, the second lowest sentence given 
to the six officers who plotted together.

The FBI arrested 10 officers and two civilians in the undercover 
investigation that stretched four years.
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