Pubdate: Sun, 17 Dec 2006
Source: Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ)
Copyright: 2006 Arizona Daily Star
Contact:  http://www.azstarnet.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/23
Author: Carol Ann Alaimo, Arizona Daily Star
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

TUCSON MILITARY RECRUITERS RAN COCAINE

Some Kept Visiting Schools for 3 Years After FBI Caught Them on
Tape

A Midtown strip mall that should have housed the best of the best
served as Corruption Central in Tucson.

Two military recruiting stations sit side-by-side there, one run by
the Army, the other by the Marines. Between them, a total of seven
recruiters were on the take, secretly accepting bribes to transport
cocaine, even as most spent their days visiting local high schools.

They had help from several more recruiters at an Army National Guard
office, where one recruiter was said to be selling cocaine from the
trunk of his recruiting vehicle.

Together, these dozen or so recruiters formed the nucleus of one of
the FBI's biggest public corruption cases, the sting known as
Operation Lively Green, which unfolded in Southern Arizona from
2002-2004 and was made public last year.

Many of the drug-running recruiters remained on the job, with
continued access to local schools, for months -- and often, years --
after FBI agents secretly filmed them counting cash next to stacks of
cocaine bricks, the Arizona Daily Star found in a months-long probe of
court records and military employment data.

Some were still recruiting three years after they first were caught on
camera running drugs in uniform. Most have pleaded guilty and are to
be sentenced in March. Some honorably retired from the military.

There is no suggestion in court records that the recruiters were
providing drugs to students.

What they did between FBI drug runs isn't known because they weren't
under constant surveillance, the FBI said. For example, in the middle
of the cocaine sting, one of the recruiters was arrested by another
law-enforcement agency in an unrelated drug case, accused of
transporting nearly 200 pounds of marijuana on Interstate 19, court
records show.

Military recruiting officials say the corruption was not widespread.
They also say they kept these recruiters on the job because they
either didn't know they were under investigation, or were told by the
FBI to leave the suspects alone so as not to jeopardize the sting's
outcome.

Some Tucson parents and school officials, contacted by the Star about
the results of the paper's research, said students should not have
been left exposed for so long to recruiters known by the FBI to be
involved in cocaine-running.

"I don't like the thought of someone involved with drugs having access
to my child, and I don't know anything about it and the school doesn't
know anything about it," said Kathy Janssen, who has a 15-year-old son
at Tucson High Magnet School, the city's largest high school. "High
school students are very vulnerable."

This isn't the first time the FBI has come under criticism in the
Lively Green case. Allegations of sexual misconduct by undercover
informants also have dogged the case and could result in reduced
punishment for the recruiters and dozens of other defendants.

Schools

At a press conference to unveil the case last year, the FBI announced
that many Lively Green defendants were military members. Agents didn't
say that recruiters were involved.

A Phoenix-based FBI spokeswoman said the agency can't say much at this
point about the Lively Green probe because it's still in progress.

Special Agent Deb McCarley did say the FBI generally performs risk
assessments before deciding to keep suspects who work in public
positions on the job during undercover probes.

"We recognize the range of ethical issues that inherently arise in the
course of our undercover investigations," McCarley said in an e-mail.

"We have sound policies in place" to address such dilemmas, she said,
and "this case has been no exception."

Some high schools in Tucson Unified, Flowing Wells Unified and Marana
Unified school districts, and in Amphitheater Public Schools, were
visited by one or more of these recruiters on a regular or occasional
basis, according to military recruiting officials. Schools in other
districts may have had visits as well, but precise records no longer
are available in some cases, officials said.

One TUSD Governing Board member was incensed to hear the recruiters
remained on the job so long.

"It's ludicrous to me that the FBI would leave these people in place
and allow them onto our high school campuses," Judy Burns said.

"If they were going to do that, they should have been monitoring them
constantly."

Monica Young, who has two children attending TUSD high schools,
agreed.

"It is appalling that recruiters who were known to be involved in such
activity were allowed on any school campus," she said.

Legal expert Stephen Saltzburg, who teaches criminal procedure at
George Washington University, said it's entirely possible that the
Tucson recruiters were running drugs in their free time and still
functioning normally on the job.

Once the FBI made the decision to leave them in place at local schools
"one would hope they would be watching that very carefully," he said.

Ethics

 From a military standpoint, it's especially egregious that recruiters
took part in the cocaine runs, experts say.

"The military definitely views recruiters as persons in a special
position of trust," said Eugene Fidell, president of the National
Institute of Military Justice, in Washington, D.C.

Recruiters are supposed to meet high standards to promote an honorable
image of the military, Fidell said. If court-martialed, they probably
would be punished more harshly than non-recruiters, he said.

The willingness of Tucson recruiters to run drugs was clear to FBI
agents from the start of the Lively Green sting, according to agent
testimony at the court-martial of a Davis-Monthan technical sergeant
- -- a non-recruiter -- convicted in the Lively Green case in June.

In fact, it was a recruiter who caused the FBI to set up the sting in
the first place, FBI Special Agent Adam Radtke said.

That recruiter, Radtke said, was former Army National Guardsman Darius
W. Perry, who pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court.

Radtke said the sting got started in late 2001, when the FBI received
numerous complaints that Perry, who worked out of the Guard's East
Side recruiting office, was taking bribes to fix the military aptitude
test scores of new recruits.

The FBI put an undercover informant in place to check it out. As the
FBI plant was paying Perry to fix a test score in the parking lot of a
Tucson restaurant, Perry opened the trunk of his recruiting vehicle
and offered to sell part of a kilo of cocaine, Radtke said.

"Perry basically introduced the crime to us," the agent
testified.

Perry couldn't be reached for comment. His federal court file,
including the name of his attorney, has been sealed by the court. The
Arizona Daily Star has filed a legal motion to have the case unsealed,
and the action is pending.

Perry, 42, and another former Army National Guard recruiter, Mark A.
Fillman, 56, were the first to offer their drug-running services to
undercover informants who posed as Mexican drug lords during the
sting, Radtke said.

The sting was set up so participants could make money in two ways --
by agreeing to help transport cocaine and by finding others to do so.

The Tucson recruiters, trained to sell people on the military, often
used those skills to recruit for the drug ring, helping the sting to
mushroom, court records show.

One Army recruiter, Rodney E. Mills, 40, brought in six people. Perry
persuaded six others, all Army National Guard members, to join, his
plea deal said.

In one case not mentioned in the plea agreement, Perry is said to have
recruited a Nogales woman named Leslie Hildago, then in her early 20s,
to join the drug ring after he had recruited her to join the National
Guard.

Hildago's lawyer, Richard Bacal of Tucson, said he is "not going to
deny" that's what took place, but said he can't elaborate because of
the plea bargain Hildago signed.

If recruiters used data from recruiting rolls to solicit people for
drug running, that's particularly offensive, said military law expert
Scott Silliman, a former senior lawyer for the Air Force who now is a
law professor at Duke University.

Such recruiters "took advantage of their positions to commit crime,"
Silliman said.

Another Tucson recruiter, former National Guard member Demian F.
Castillo, 35, got his own younger brother -- John M. Castillo, 31, --
to join the drug ring, court records show.

The younger Castillo, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection port
inspector, agreed to wave through two vehicles he believed were loaded
with cocaine at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, in exchange for
$19,000. He, too, pleaded guilty.

Prosecution

Of the more than 60 Lively Green defendants who have pleaded guilty so
far, 10 were Tucson military recruiters. Between the 10, they pocketed
a total of $180,600 in bribe payments, court records show.

Five worked at the Army's Midtown recruiting office: Mills, Sheldon L.
Anderson, 27; Derreck J. Curry, 30; Ronricco M. Allen, 36; and Jason
E. Kitzmiller, 27.

Two Marine recruiters whose office was next door to the Army
recruiters also pleaded guilty: James M. Clear, 26, and Jared A. Wright, 28.

National Guard recruiters who pleaded guilty include Perry, Fillman
and Castillo. A fourth National Guard recruiter, Raul F. Portillo, 34,
was identified by the FBI as a suspect but was never charged. Portillo
is the recruiter arrested during the FBI sting by another police
agency on marijuana trafficking charges. He is believed to have fled
to Mexico.

In May, Perry retired honorably from the military, six months before
the FBI arrested him. Fillman also retired honorably in May 2003, two
years before he was charged.

In two cases, the Arizona Army National Guard gave suspected or
convicted recruiters general discharges under "honorable" conditions.

One went to Castillo, the recruiter who brought his brother into the
drug ring.

The lawyer for the Arizona Army National Guard, Col. Richard
Palmatier, said Castillo resigned from the Guard a day before his
guilty plea, which kept his personnel file free of information about
the crime.

Portillo, the former recruiter believed to be in Mexico, also received
a general discharge under honorable conditions, even though he was
wanted in Santa Cruz County -- and still is -- on the unrelated drug
charges. Palmatier said Guard officials didn't know about those
charges, and even if they had, Portillo wasn't convicted so the case
couldn't be used against him upon discharge.

Portillo was stopped on northbound I-19 in a vehicle filled with pot
in July 2003, and is thought to have left the country to escape
prosecution, said Santa Cruz County Attorney George Silva. Portillo
couldn't be reached for comment.

Silva was astonished to hear the National Guard gave Portillo a
military discharge that includes the word "honorable."

"That is shocking. It's absolutely amazing," he said.

What Now

What happens next with the recruiters and other Lively Green
defendants is in the court's hands.

Each defendant who pleaded guilty faces the possibility of up to five
years in prison. But all have signed plea bargains that say their
sentences will be determined by their willingness to cooperate with
prosecutors and testify against others, if needed.

In their plea deals, none of the defendants was charged with drug
trafficking, which has higher potential penalties. Instead, they were
charged with bribery, conspiracy and extortion for the cash they accepted.

How much prison time they get -- if any -- also may be influenced by
the allegations of misconduct that have surfaced in the Lively Green
probe.

The complete extent of misconduct has never been publicly revealed,
but according to witness testimony at the D-M court-martial in June,
there was an incident in October 2002 in which informants posing as
drug dealers hired hookers after a drug run to a Las Vegas hotel.

The FBI informant paid the prostitutes to have sex with several men
who later became defendants, witnesses said.

At one point, they said, a prostitute who was drunk and high appeared
to pass out and one of the FBI informants performed lewd acts over the
woman's face while someone else took photographs.

The informant involved later destroyed the photos, said the defense
lawyer in the D-M court-martial case.

A Tucson lawyer and former federal prosecutor said it's "absolutely
probable" that Lively Green defendants will get a break on their
sentences because of the misconduct.

"Any time you have credible allegations of misconduct, it is going to
impact the resolution of a case," said A. Bates Butler III, who
prosecuted drug cases and other federal cases from 1977 to 1981 as
U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona.

"Jurors don't like misconduct," Bates said, so prosecutors sometimes
will try to salvage such cases by offering plea deals to lesser
charges so the cases don't get to trial.

Military recruiting officials said they removed the corrupt recruiters
once they learned of the crimes, or when they got the go-ahead from
the FBI to do so.

"We suspended the soldiers from recruiting duties as soon as we were
notified of their involvement," which often was the same day they
pleaded guilty, said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for Army Recruiting
Command at Fort Knox, Ky.

Military officials say the criminal acts of Tucson's recruiters are
regrettable but not the norm.

"Allegations of recruiter misconduct are rare," considering the
thousands of recruiters on the job nationwide, said Janice Hagar, a
Marine Corps recruiting spokeswoman. "This was an isolated incident."

[sidebar]

STAR'S 6-MONTH INVESTIGATION INITIALLY BLOCKED

The Arizona Daily Star compiled the information for this story over
six months through court searches, public record requests, and, in one
case, by hiring a lawyer when one service would not provide
information about its recruiters.

Each of the military services involved -- the Army, Marine Corps and
Arizona Army National Guard -- initially invoked the Privacy Act or
said the request would have to be handled under the Freedom of
Information Act, which can be a lengthy process.

In fact, Defense Department policies specifically allow the release of
the information without a FOIA request.

Confronted with those policies, the Army and Marine Corps quickly
relented and provided the information. The Arizona Army National Guard
did not relent -- even after being advised to by National Guard
headquarters in Virginia.

The Star asked Gov. Janet Napolitano's office to intervene and a
governor's aide pledged to work with the Guard to get the records
released. But the Guard said nearly all the information was
"unattainable."

The Guard released the information two-and-a-half months after it was
requested, and shortly after the Star threatened legal action.

In an accompanying letter, Guard lawyer Col. Richard Palmatier said
the Star's request for the data had been "entirely reasonable" all
along.

He blamed the delays on staff mistakes, unplanned sick leaves and the
demands of preparing for a deployment.

[sidebar]

THE 11 WHO WERE CAUGHT

These 11 Tucson military recruiters were part of the sting known as
Operation Lively Green.

Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Demian F. Castillo

Age: 35.

Recruiting office: 5500 E. Valencia Road

Started recruiting: April 2001

First drug run taped by FBI: February 2002

Stopped recruiting: May 2005

Schools visited: Guard officials say there are no precise records. The
recruiting office Castillo worked at covers at least 17 traditional
and charter high schools, most on the South Side and in Midtown. See
list below.*

Cocaine runs: February 2002 (30 kilos); April 2002 (20
kilos)

Status: Pleaded guilty in May 2005 and is awaiting sentencing. In
December 2005, Castillo received a general military discharge under
honorable conditions.

Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Raul F. Portillo

Age: 34

Recruiting office: 7290 E. Broadway

Started recruiting: Sept. 2000

First drug run taped by FBI: Unclear. FBI notified National Guard in
January 2003 that Portillo was a suspect. But Portillo went AWOL
(absent without leave) and is thought to have left the country. He has
not been charged.

Stopped recruiting: August 2003

Schools visited: Canyon del Oro High, Catalina High Magnet
School

Cocaine runs: Unclear.

Status: Declared AWOL from the military in August 2005 -- the same
month a warrant was issued for his arrest in an unrelated marijuana
trafficking case in Santa Cruz County. In September 2005, Portillo
was granted a general discharge under honorable conditions.

Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Mark A. Fillman

Age: 56

Recruiting office: 7290 E. Broadway

Started recruiting: February 2001

First drug run taped by FBI: January 2002

Stopped recruiting: February 2003

Schools visited: Guard officials say there are no precise records. The
recruiting office Fillman worked at covers at least 19 high schools,
most in Midtown and on the Northwest Side. See list below.

Cocaine runs: January 2002 (11.8 kilos); February 2002 (30 kilos);
April 2002 (20 kilos)

Status: About a year after his first drug run, Fillman retired
honorably from the military. Two years later, he was charged by the
FBI. He pleaded guilty in May 2005 and awaits sentencing.

Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Darius W. Perry

Age: 42.

Recruiting offices: 7290 E. Broadway and, in 2004, at the Western Army
Aviation Training Site in Marana.

Started recruiting: September 1996

First drug run taped by FBI: January 2002

Stopped recruiting: May 2004 (transferred to National Guard
headquarters in Virginia).

Schools visited: Guard officials say there are no precise records. The
recruiting office Perry worked at covers at least 19 high schools,
most in Midtown and on the Northwest Side. See list below.

Cocaine runs: January 2002 (11.8 kilos); February 2002 (30 kilos);
April 2002 (20 kilos); July 2002 (20 kilos); August 2002 (60 kilos);
October 2002 (60 kilos).

Status: Honorably discharged in May 2006, six months before his
arrest. Perry pleaded guilty Thursday and awaits sentencing.

Marine Sgt. James M. Clear

Age: 26

Recruiting office: 2302 E. Speedway

Started recruiting: September 2002

First drug run taped by FBI: November 2002

Stopped recruiting: February 2004

Schools visited: Marana High, Nogales High, Tucson High Magnet
School

Cocaine runs: November 2002 (20 kilos); February 2003 (30
kilos)

Status: Fired from the military in June 2004 for unrelated
misconduct. Convicted of DUI in January 2004 in Tucson. Pleaded
guilty in FBI case in August 2005 and is awaiting sentencing.

Marine Sgt. Jared A. Wright

Age: 29

Recruiting office: 2302 E. Speedway

Started recruiting: July 2002

First drug run taped by FBI: February 2003

Stopped recruiting: October 2005

Schools visited: Canyon del Oro High, Flowing Wells High, Ironwood
Ridge High, Pusch Ridge Christian Academy

Cocaine runs: February 2003 (30 kilos)

Status: Pleaded guilty October 2005 and awaits sentencing. Fired from
the military in December 2005.

Army Sgt. Sheldon L. Anderson

Age: 27

Recruiting office: 2303 E. Speedway

Started recruiting: February 2003

First drug run taped by FBI: March 2004

Stopped recruiting: September 2005

Schools visited: Santa Rita High School

Cocaine runs: March 2004 (30 kilos)

Status: Pleaded guilty September 2005 and awaits sentencing. Fired
from the military in February 2006.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Derreck J. Curry

Age: 30

Recruiting office: 2303 E. Speedway

Started recruiting: December 2000

First drug run taped by FBI: August 2002

Stopped recruiting: December 2005

Schools visited: Amphitheater High School

Cocaine runs: August 2002 (40 kilos); October 2002 (60 kilos); January
2003 (40 kilos); February 2003 (30 kilos); October 2003 (40 kilos);
December 2003 (80 kilos)

Status: Pleaded guilty March 2006 and awaits sentencing. In August
2006, the Army took steps to fire him. The separation board's
decision is pending.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Ronricco M. Allen

Age: 36

Recruiting office: 2303 E. Speedway

Started recruiting: May 1997

First drug run taped by FBI: August 2002

Stopped recruiting: February 2006

Schools visited: Since October 2001, Allen worked mainly from his
office and did not visit schools, Army officials say.

Cocaine runs: August 2002 (40 kilos); October 2002 (60 kilos). In
November 2002, he provided a recruiting vehicle for use in a 20-kilo
coke run carried out by others.

Status: Pleaded guilty in March 2006 and awaits sentencing. In April
2006, the Army began proceedings to fire him. The separation board's
decision is pending.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Rodney E. Mills

Age: 40

Recruiting office: 2303 E. Speedway

Started recruiting: February 2000

First drug run taped by FBI: August 2002

Stopped recruiting: February 2006

Schools visited: From February 2000 to June 2004, Mills was a field
recruiter who likely would have visited one or more schools. When
asked to identify which schools, the Army did not provide an answer by
deadline. From July 2004 to February 2006, Mills was a station
commander and did not visit schools, Army officials said.

Cocaine runs: August 2002 (40 kilos); Nov. 2002 (20 kilos); January
2003 (40 kilos); February 2003 (30 kilos)

Status: Pleaded guilty in March 2006 and awaits sentencing. In April
2006, the Army began proceedings to fire him. The separation board's
decision is pending.

Army Cpl. Jason E. Kitzmiller

Age: 27

Recruiting office: 2303 E. Speedway

Started recruiting: March 2001

First drug run taped by FBI: August 2002

Stopped recruiting: January 2003

Schools visited: Army says records can't be located.

Cocaine runs: August 2002 (40 kilos)

Status: Left the military in January 2003, more than two years before
charge were laid. Pleaded guilty in August 2005 and awaits sentencing.

*High schools now covered by the Army National Guard's Valencia Road
recruiting office include: Cholla High Magnet School; Desert Mosaic
School; Desert View High School; Direct Link II; Downtown Alternative
High School; Howenstine High Magnet School; Mary Meredith High School;
Presidio School; Project MORE High School; Pueblo Magnet High School;
S.T.A.R. Academic Center; Southern Arizona Community High School;
Southgate Academy; Southwest Alternative High School; Sunnyside High
School; Teenage Parent Program; and University High School. This list
may vary somewhat from the one in place when the FBI sting was in
progress. An exact list is unavailable, Guard officials said.

High schools now covered by the Army National Guard's East Broadway
recruiting office include: Academic & Personal Excellence High School;
Academy of Math and Science; Accelerated Elementary and Secondary
Schools; ACE Charter High School; Artworks Academy; Calli Ollin
Academy; Canyon Rose Academy; Catalina Foothills High School; Catalina
Magnet High School; Desert Rose Academy; Eastpointe High School; Luz
Academy of Tucson; Marana High School; Mountain Rose Academy; Mountain
View High School; PASS Alternative High School; Rincon High School;
Santa Rita High School; and Tucson Preparatory School. This list may
vary somewhat from the one in place when the FBI sting was in
progress. An exact list is unavailable, Guard officials said.

Sources: U.S. District Court records; U.S. Army; Arizona Army
National Guard; U.S. Marine Corps; Santa Cruz County Superior Court
records; area school districts and Arizona Daily Star research.
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