Pubdate: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Fresno Bee Contact: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/opinion/letters.html Website: http://www.fresnobee.com/ Forum: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/projects/webforums/opinion.html Author: Jerry Bier The Fresno Bee FORMER OFFICER INDICTED IN CASE OF STOLEN DRUGS A former California Highway Patrol officer whose cooperation helped crack a Southern California drug case was named in a 13-count indictment unsealed Friday in Fresno. The indictment charges Michael Wilcox with "structuring financial transactions" in an effort to hide an unexplained accumulation of wealth. Wilcox, 40, of Fresno appeared briefly before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis L. Beck, who set Feb. 14 for arraignment and a status conference in the case. According to investigators, Wilcox aroused suspicion when he began making a series of bank deposits throughout Fresno, Merced and Kings counties. The frequent deposits, made between February and October 1998, ranged from $1,800 to $4,400. Deposits of less than $10,000 are usually not reported to federal authorities. Wilcox was indicted in November in Fresno, but the indictment was kept sealed as he worked with investigators on the drug case. His cooperation led to the arrests of others in a Southern California drug case, including George Ruelas, also a former CHP officer and a partner of Wilcox's. Wilcox and Ruelas were linked to former Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement agent Richard Wayne Parker in narcotics transactions that authorities say could have netted each of them as much as $1 million. Authorities had suspected that Parker, who was convicted on narcotics possession and distribution charges, had help in the theft of nearly 650 pounds of cocaine from a BNE evidence locker in Riverside on July 4, 1997. Officers reportedly cracked the case with the cooperation of Wilcox, who had resigned from the CHP. Ruelas and Wilcox burglarized the evidence locker using a key and a code that Parker had provided, investigators said in affidavits filed in federal court. Since Ruelas' arrest in Fresno last month, authorities have also arrested James Tracy Strickler, a sheriff's deputy from Pima County, Ariz. According to court documents, the four law officers wore official gear to raid a Malibu Canyon home in the early 1990s. Prosecutors said they took about $13,000 from a suspected drug dealer and a pound of marijuana. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D