Pubdate: Wed, 15 Feb 2006
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2006 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Harvey Rice

DRUG CHARGES SHOCK PEERS

Ex-Colleagues Say Sky Marshal Was A Good Officer

Burlie L. Sholar III was a good policeman and a good U.S. officer in
the eyes of his peers before he and another federal sky marshal were
arrested on drug charges last week.

"I'm just surprised that he would be involved in this alleged
activity," said former Homeland Security Department agent Danny
Stanley, now assistant chief of the Fort Pickett Police Department in
Virginia.

Sholar, 32, and Shawn Ray Nguyen, 38, both of Houston, are accused of
conspiring to use their positions as air marshals to smuggle 15
kilograms, or 33 pounds, of cocaine on an airliner flying from Houston
to Las Vegas.

Stanley said Sholar was a good friend whom he first met in Washington,
D.C., when Stanley worked for the Metropolitan Police Department and
Sholar worked for the U.S. Capitol Police.

He said he and Sholar were friends for about two years before Sholar
left the Capitol Police to join the Los Angeles Police Department.

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police did not respond to a
request for information about Sholar's employment.

Officer Sara Faden of the LAPD said Sholar joined the department in
1996 and resigned for personal reasons in 2001.

"To my knowledge he had a respectable record," Faden said.

David Adams, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said
Sholar was hired as an air marshal in 2001.

Stanley renewed his acquaintance with Sholar after taking a job as an
agent with Homeland Security in 2002, he said.

"I knew him quite well and the allegations surprised me," Stanley
said. "It certainly surprised myself and other co-workers."

He said he had received numerous phone calls from agents who worked
with Sholar, all expressing disbelief.

Nguyen was an agent with the Houston office of the Drug Enforcement
Administration from 1997 to 2002 and left voluntarily to become an air
marshal, DEA spokesman Ray D'Alessio said.

D'Alessio said Nguyen was in good standing when he left the
agency.

Adams said Sholar and Nguyen both were subjected to thorough
background checks that gave them a top-secret security clearance.

The background checks conducted by the Office of Personnel Management
typically include a review of previous employment, criminal and credit
background checks, and interviews of acquaintances by field agents,
Adams said.

The field agent reports are reviewed by other officials. Once
approved, agents must be reinvestigated every five years, he said.

Federal court records show that Nguyen filed for bankruptcy two weeks
after becoming an air marshal in 2002.

He had a total debt of $203,000, including a $108,500 mortgage and
more than $50,000 in credit card debt, records show.

Nguyen listed a former wife and three children in his
filing.

There is no indication that his bankruptcy was a factor in his
decision to begin associating with a person he knew had a criminal
history and ties to a drug trafficker, as alleged in the criminal complaint.

Nguyen began giving the person, referred to only as a cooperating
witness, thousands of dollars in cash to invest in drug transactions,
according to the complaint against him and Sholar.

The informant recorded incriminating conversations with Nguyen and
helped investigators from the FBI and Homeland Security's Office of
the Inspector General set up a phony drug transaction that led to
their arrest, the complaint says.
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