Source: Philadelphia Daily News Author: Jim Smith, Daily News Staff Writer Contact: Pubdate: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 Website: http://www.phillynews.com/ LOOKS LIKE DRUG ARREST IS A BUST It was a big bust for a Philadelphia Housing Authority narc. Two international drug traffickers were under arrest, and more than 3.2 pounds of heroin, worth at least $500,000 in street sales, had been seized from their car without a shot being fired. Within days, the feds elected to prosecute the pair, part of a Guatemalan heroin smuggling ring, hoping to send them to prison for a long time. And the gung-ho cop who made it all happen, Harry Fernandez, soon was recruited to work for the U.S. Drug Administration's local task force, a feather in any cop's cap, on an ongoing investigation of the Guatemalan connection. Problem was, according to a federal grand jury, Fernandez had made up the story about why he stopped the car and how the heroin had been found. And, Fernandez allegedly compounded his wrongdoing by getting five other PHA cops -- his partner, Rosemary Weston, and Michael Duross, Todd Jordan, Joseph Watts and Ariel Morales -- to lie to prosecutors and federal agents, the grand jury said. The other officers have now fingered Fernandez and they won't be charged with any criminal wrongdoing, sources said. In a four-count indictment unsealed yesterday, Fernandez was charged with conspiring to obstruct justice and making false statements to the U.S. attorney's office. Fernandez, 30, of Oakley Street near Princeton, a former star baseball player in high school, married and the father of three, pleaded not guilty and was released on a $100,000 bond, secured by his house, to await trial. In court records, Fernandez claimed he had good reason to stop the pair's car on Thompson Street near 4th, North Philadelphia, because the heroin was in plain view. The drug traffickers' told a far different story to authorities. They claimed the heroin and the cash were nowhere in sight, hidden in a secret compartment beneath the steering wheel. Faced with the tainted bust, prosecutors said they had no choice but to plea-bargain with the suspects, trading leniency for their testimony against other drug traffickers and the cop who busted them, Fernandez. One defendant, Enrique Matos Gotay, 46, was sentenced in October by U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell to 42 months in prison for his part in the heroin trafficking conspiracy. The other, Dr. Jose Barrios Lopez, 38, a physician, awaits sentencing for using a telephone to facilitate drug trafficking, and the most he can get is 40 months.